Ecuadorian Office Change
On May 20, 1999, the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food
Institute moved its Riobamba, Ecuador, office to a new facility
in Ibarra in the province of Imbaburra. The Benson Institute
has worked in Riobamba since 1987 in collaboration with the
University of Chimborazo. The office has been a resource for
faculty and students from that university and from Brigham
Young University for projects on health issues and animal
and food production.
In March 1999, Benson Institute administrators decided to
move to larger facilities in Ibarra, where they could develop
associations with new partners. Contracts have been made with
the Northern Technical University there, and the Benson Institute
is developing a strategy to identify and solve problems of
malnutrition in the surrounding communities. The Benson Institute
is currently supporting eight different studies by Northern
Technical University students and eight by students at the
University of Chimborazo. Raquel Tustón will continue as the
Ecuadorian administrator.
Creating Manuals
The Benson Institute publishes manuals for use in its offices,
rural communities, and schools. Dorita Roque and Katherine
Diéguez were invited from Guatemala to the Provo office to
complete five manuals on nutrition, family health, home management,
agronomy, and domesticated animal care. Roque is the Benson
Institute’s nurse in Chiquimula, and Diéguez completed her
thesis and volunteer service with the Benson Institute as
a nutrition student. Roque and Diéguez spent two months developing
the guides during the summer of 1999. Written in Spanish,
the manuals can be accessed by any village resident and will
serve as references in Latin America for those working on
village improvement projects.
While in Provo, Diéguez also created several posters documenting
Benson Institute research projects in Guatemala. The posters
were presented at INCAP’s (Institute of Nutrition for Central
America and Panama) fiftieth anniversary conference. The posters
were then donated to the University of San Carlos’s School
of Nutrition in Guatemala City.
Camelid Research
The Benson Institute is starting a camelid research program
in South America. Camelids are a family of ruminating animals
including llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicuñas. Millions
of people in the Andean region depend on them for labor, food,
and fiber. Benson Institute director N. Paul Johnston emphasized
that "bringing the camelid into the sphere of research of
the Institute gives us an opportunity to interact more extensively
with the animal science department at BYU. A camelid research
team is being formed within that department to examine quite
extensively the camelid and hopefully make some substantial
progress." Camelids have been brought to BYU for genetic mapping
and for the study of the animals’ metabolism.
The Benson Institute is sponsoring Sonja Burton, a BYU graduate
student in animal science, as she performs research at a station
in Punta Arenas, Chile. The research station is maintained
by INIA, the Chilean government’s agricultural department.
INIA has been researching camelids for several years in order
to improve camelid breeds and production techniques.
Burton is researching camelid nutrition in Chile with the
assistance of Dr. Etel Latorre, Dr. Nilo Covacevich, and technician
Salvador Reyes. With the information she gains, the Benson
Institute will be able to help rural Andean inhabitants raise
their herds of llamas and alpacas more efficiently. Dr. Todd
Robinson, Burton’s graduate advisor and a member of the BYU
camelid team, explained that the project will yield lessons
that will be useful elsewhere: "We’ll be able to take the
work that we do to the Altiplano in either Chile, Bolivia,
or Peru and work with the poor villages there. They’re the
ones that raise the llamas for meat. With the research that
Sonja’s doing and the research we’re going to be doing here
we hope we can help them out."
Bolivian Sociology |
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 Katherine
Diéguez waters plants during research in Guatemala.
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| Sonja
Burton and Todd Robinson work with camelids in Chile.
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