The Minister of Agriculture of Chile, Alvaro Rojas Marín, spent Friday morning, 23 March 2007, touring CIMMYT’s germplasm bank and the biotech lab and talking with Masa Iwanaga, Director General. He was accompanied by ministry staff, the Agricultural Counselor of the Chilean Embassy in Mexico, Oscar Troncoso Muñoz, the president of the Chilean Exporters Association, and Fernando Valderrábano Pesquera, Subdirector for International Affairs of Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, SAGARPA. Among other topics, Rojas and Masa discussed Chile’s success in commercial agriculture and how that country’s farm sector model might hold relevance for other Latin American nations seeking opportunities in globalized markets.
Nutrition, health and food security 