Jeff Lansdale, President of the Panamerican Agricultural School, Zamorano, provided a lunchtime keynote address, "How Academia Can Better Nourish the Future," on March 27, 2019, at "Colorful Harvest: From Feeding to Nourishing a Growing World," the Horticulture Innovation Lab's Horticulture Research for Development Conference held in Washington, D.C.

Lansdale's presentation slides first take a look at global context, focusing on population and poverty trends in some Feed the Future countries. He discussed that Honduras and Guatemala had increases in poverty rates between 2000 and 2017, with a significant growth in the populations living in poverty in these Central American countries during the same time period.

His presentation moved into ways that Zamorano can have impact on culture and on youth engagement, with a focus on innovation, research, outreach, engagement and education.

He highlighted some of Zamorano's successful ventures, including the Horticulture Innovation Lab Regional Center at Zamorano, which includes 21 low-cost technologies established for demonstration purposes. The center team has trained 2,400 rural producers in how to use these technologies in the past three years.

Lansdale emphasized international collaboration between agricultural universities, and highlighted Zamorano's participation in several collaborative projects, including ISEEK of Purdue University and a project with Texas A&M researchers. He also highlighted the success of Juan Carlos Rosas, a Zamorano researcher who worked with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research to develop and release more than 60 bean varieties.