Best Management Practices
for large scale Industrial farming of Avocados
by Robin Escobedo

   

   I will be working with the Nature Conservancy in Chile for 3 months leaving September 3rd and returning December 9th in offices in both Santiago, Chile and Valdivia, Chile. The Nature Conservancy requires 3 months of all volunteers in the internship. Santiago is considered the metropolitan area of Chile and is also the captital. Valdivia is closer to the south of Chile, which is much cooler in climate and is home to many forests and the Valdivian Coastal Range. This area is where most of the avocados will be harvested from. In both areas I will be working with Francisco Solis and Victoria Alonzo respectively.

      I will be studying Best Management Practices for growing avocados and incorporating them for large scale Avocado plantations in Valdivia, Chile. Our main goal is introduce the BMP's to big business and to include the conservation of biodiversity and the use of other systems opposed to the monoculture farming practices already in place. Since I will be getting there right as the harvest season begins, we will try to implement these practices with not only the larger scale farms but also come up with generic rubrics to also educate the local growers of Avocados in the area and hopefully the rest of Chile. The Nature Conservancy's main goal is to combine conservation of bio-diversity and the production of avocados to one sustainable form of Agro-Business for the country.

This project has been made possible by a funding support under the USDA CSREES ISE Grant Program.
USDA-CSREES Grant Number 2006-51160-03409.