Stronger Plant Breeding Networks for Central America and the Caribbean: A Solution to Address Our Climatic and Market Challenges

School of Integrative Plant Science seminar

• Location: Plant Science Building 404 (Zoom option available)
• Refreshments provided

Abstract:

The challenges faced by the Central American and Caribbean region require us to make the best possible use of scarce resources. Crop improvement is no exception, and we need to promote initiatives that synergize the efforts of various regional players. These players include national institutes and universities, as well as international universities and research centers, each playing different roles within their respective innovation ecosystems, depending on the reality of each country.

To move forward with this agenda, we propose strengthening our crop improvement networks. The idea of collaboration networks for crop improvement in the region is not entirely new, and some initiatives have already borne fruit. However, our current challenge is to adapt this collaboration to meet the technical and funding challenges of our time—this is at the core of our proposed work with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.

About the Speaker

José Roberto Camacho is Executive Director of Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) and a plant breeder dedicated to the development of new and better plant varieties for improving the livelihood of Central American farmers. Along with his work is a cereal breeder, he works on the development of rice varieties for multiple environments, using conventional and molecular methods. In addition to his breeding responsibilities, he is the current Coordinator of Costa Rica’s Integrated Rice Research and Extension Program.

Dr. Camacho firmly believes in education as the fundamental means of self-improvement, a philosophy of life that he transmits daily to his co-workers, interns, and students. From a small rural community of Costa Rican Caribbean region, he obtained his B.Sc. in Agronomy at EARTH University, an internationally recognized non-profit university located in Costa Rica. He obtained his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Louisiana State University in 2017, where he worked in their world-renowned rice breeding program.