For over thirty years (1968-01), Cornell University has offered students a "living laboratory" of field study in agriculture and agricultural development involving a two-week trip to the tropics. These trips have constituted training and motivation for many of today's leaders in international agriculture.
IA 602 Alumni Reunion in Costa Rica
To celebrate over 30 years of the International Agriculture field course in tropical agriculture (IA 602), alumni, faculty, extensionists and administrators gathered in San Jose, Costa Rica from March 19 to 22.
The President of Costa Rica, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, delivered the conference's keynote address on the future of agricultural development. The nation's Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Brenes and Robert D. Havener, former director general of CIMMYT and past president of Winrock International also spoke about challenges to agriculture. Among the Cornell faculty who participated in and organized the program were Robert Blake (Animal Science), H. David Thurston (Plant Pathology, emeritus), Merrill Ewert (Cornell Cooperative Extension), Eugene Erickson (Rural Sociology, emeritus), Ed Oyer (International Agriculture, emeritus), H. Dean Sutphin (CALS Office of Academic Programs), and Robert McDowell (Animal Science, emeritus).
Program speakers included executives from the Panamerican School of Agriculture in Zamorano, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Center for Agricultural Policy Studies, and the African Center for Fertilizer Studies. The six-credit course titled (Agriculture in Developing Nations) is structured in two parts. The first part consists of study at Cornell; the second is a visit to the Latin American tropics. Since the first trip to Puerto Rico in 1968, more than 1,100 students, faculty and staff have traveled with IA 602 to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and most recently, Ecuador. As well as being a venue for learning and reunion, the March conference was part of an effort to secure long-term funding for the course. Diane Munn - CIIFAD
Also look at Album 6 in the Photo Gallery which are photos from the Costa Rica reunion/conference.
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Other Image Archives by H. D. Thurston
Smokin' Doc Thusrton's Greatest Hits
| Reunion Brochure | Reunion Base | Faculty Participants | Locales Visisted | Photo Gallery |
| Fieldtrip Anecdotes | Your Comments | Notices and Announcements|
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