Luis Fernando Osorio, director of the Food Technology Department at Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School in Honduras, speaks at the LSU AgCenter’s Global Agriculture Hour on March 2. (Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter)

BATON ROUGE, La. – In Honduras, where 67 percent of people live in poverty, food and other resources are not always used or distributed efficiently.

The Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, which is one of the LSU AgCenter’s strongest international partners, is working to change that by developing leaders for sustainable agriculture throughout Latin America.

Though small, with only 1,300 students, the school prides itself in giving students a high-quality education as well as teaching them how to be a good citizen, Luis Fernando Osorio, director of Zamorano’s Food Technology Department, told attendees of the AgCenter’s March 2 Global Agriculture Hour. That is important, he said, in the increasingly global agriculture industry.

Zamorano sends a class of visiting scholars to LSU’s campus every fall and spring semester.

Osorio, who earned his master’s degree in dairy science at LSU, said Zamorano is a “very international” school that has students from 22 countries. Less than a quarter of the student body is from Honduras.

“The one thing you cannot put a price on and you cannot measure, when the students live in their dorms and share with the different cultures, that’s the ‘hidden curriculum’ — part of their personal growth,” Osorio said. “It’s part of a Zamorano education.”

Zamorano is an undergraduate-only institution that offers four degree programs: agribusiness, food science, socioeconomic development, and agricultural science and production.

Zamorano prizes the values of respect and responsibility, Osorio said. That is reinforced not only by the university’s diversity, but also by its emphasis on learning by doing.

“Students spend half their time in the fields and in the labs, putting in practice what they learn in the classroom,” Osorio said. “We teach them how to work.”

They work at 15 on-campus enterprise units, which are food and agriculture production facilities managed by professors. Osorio is in charge of the dairy plant, where students make products such as cheese, yogurt and butter that are sold to local supermarkets and hotels. They learn about agriculture and entrepreneurship at the same time, Osorio said.

Zamorano students have a rigorous class and work schedule and follow a strict code of conduct. Everyone wears the same blue uniform, and men are required to shave daily.

Wilfredo Cerrato, a senior at Zamorano and visiting scholar under AgCenter food scientist Witoon Prinyawiwatkul, said the discipline instilled in students at Zamorano pays off.

“Now we can see how important that is in our lives and how this has been helping us to learn more in these opportunities at LSU,” he said.

Cerrato said he has learned about new technologies and done some of his own research at LSU. He is working on his thesis, which is required of all Zamorano seniors, and hopes to return to LSU for graduate school.

More than half of Zamorano graduates go on to grad school, Osorio said.

Zamorano seniors are also encouraged to complete internships at companies and other universities. Some stay in Honduras, but most go abroad. In many cases, students land jobs through their internship.

“You will find someone from Zamorano everywhere,” Osorio said. “He will offer you his house, he will offer to pick you up at the airport. It’s a strong network we have developed, and it has to do with us living at Zamorano for four years, sharing stories, sharing experiences, tying us together.”

However, Osorio said many Zamorano graduates who go abroad do not return to Latin America — but their expertise is desperately needed to solve problems like hunger and poverty.

“Zamorano cannot just stand and watch, and LSU and Zamorano can be partners in that mission,” Osorio said.

David Picha, director of AgCenter International Programs, said the AgCenter’s partnership with Zamorano has made important contributions to both institutions over the years.

“We want to continue to expand that relationship,” Picha said. “There are a number of avenues to expand our partnership with Zamorano, and that benefits agriculture in Louisiana, the U.S. and the world.”

Olivia McClure