Rockefeller Center helps to enhance productivity of Argentina's 'breadbasket'

By Steve Reifenberg

Special to the Gazette

Argentine agriculturists, environmentalists, and economists have begun working closely with Harvard academics to make Argentina's breadbasket both more productive and environmentally healthy.

The cooperation has come about as a result of the first international conference hosted in Latin America by Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

The March conference in Buenos Aires -- "Towards a Sustainable and Productive Agriculture in the Pampas" -- brought together an interdisciplinary group of Harvard faculty members with Argentine academics and business, nongovernmental, and public sector leaders to explore ways that Argentina's agricultural development can be both economically and environmentally sustainable.

The pampas -- Argentina's rich agricultural belt -- is intimately

connected with the country's development. Although Argentina is the fifth-largest exporter of grain in the world, it has the lowest yields among the top five grain-producing countries. One of the conference objectives was to explore ways to increase yields in ways that do not damage the environment.

" 'Sustainability' is in the mouths of everyone, but few understand what this means," said Bussey Professor of Biology Otto Solbrig. "Some suggest it means equilibrium. In nature this equilibrium does not exist. There is always change and there is no technology that does not produce change.

"The challenge for us is to explore moving towards a more productive agriculture that is economically viable, maintains the capacity of the system, is socially equitable, and does not destroy the natural resources."

Solbrig has been working for more than a year with the Rockefeller Center and with colleagues in Argentina to organize this initiative.

Solbrig, a member of the center's Executive Committee who was born in Argentina, enlisted many other Harvard colleagues in the Buenos Aires initiative, including Center Director John Coatsworth, Edward S. Mason Professor Merilee Grindle, Center Visiting Scholar (from Princeton) Jeremy Adelman, Harvard Institute for International Development Fellow Theo Panayotou, and Center for International Affairs Associate Robert Paarlberg.

During an initial three-day symposium, 45 influential academics, researchers, and business and public sector representatives met in private, off-the-record meetings to explore the major challenges facing the development of the pampas.

These three days allowed for significant dialogue across disciplines. Participants included agriculturists, biologists, economists, political scientists, and historians, among others.

"It is very rare in Argentina for people from as many different

institutions and different perspectives to come together and engage in a dialogue and really learn from one another," said agronomist Carlos Cadoppi, president of the Consejo Profesional de Ingeniería Agronómica, the Argentine cosponsor of the initiative. "This is an incredible opportunity to begin to build a consensus about the direction that we need to go."

The second stage of the initiative was a public conference held at the Banco de la Nacion to share the results of the three-day symposium.

"This initiative has multiple objectives," Solbrig explained at the public conference. "One objective is to reduce the skepticism that nothing can be done. However, it must be clear that outsiders cannot solve the problems of Argentina. Only Argentines can do that.

"What outsiders can do is bring together those truly knowledgeable about these areas and create opportunities for dialogue. We can help to demonstrate that we can work together to develop the pampas in a way that is sustainable."

The importance of follow-up was one of the major themes of the conference and, in fact, follow-up began on the day the conference ended, when Solbrig was invited to a meeting of all the deans and academic secretaries of the major schools of agronomy and food science in Argentina. His mission was to get them to focus on how they are going to train leaders in the agriculture and environmental sector for the 21st century.

The project was applauded by Eduardo Dualde, governor of the Province of Buenos Aires.

"This is an incredibly important initiative that is helping all of

us pay more attention to the sector in Argentina," Dualde said.

Steve Reifenberg is executive director of the David Rockefeller Center. This article is adapted from one that appeared in the Center's newsletter.