Universidad de la Salle

On May 31st, the Teams and projects selected from the most recent round 100,000 Strong in the Americas – Cacao for Peace initiative were announced. On this occasion, 3 joint projects between Unisalle and American allies were selected. Unisalle was the institution with the most projects selected in this round of the program, a true reflection of the quality of its students, professors, and administrators.

The “Cacao Innovation Rural Youth Lab: Instilling global values through shared agricultural activities”  project between Universidad de La Salle and University of California, Davis will engage faculty and students at both institutions in learning about the cacao value chain while sharpening their interdisciplinary and intercultural skills. Participants will learn about the cacao value chain from planting to processing, gain research experience, and build multidisciplinary skills to work across countries to solve contemporary problems.

The Universidad de La Salle and Manhattan College will collaborate on the “Circular Agriculture in Cocoa Production: A Sustainable Strategy to Promote a Healthy Environment, Food and Life” project to share their expertise and knowledge through an international engineering research team to generate an integral, sustainable strategy for cocoa production. The project aims to use circular agriculture in cocoa processing to improve the quality and health-factors of cocoa while addressing climate change and soil degradation issues in Yopal, Colombia.

New Mexico State University and Universidad de La Salle-Colombia will collaborate on the "Utopia: Leveraging the Advancement of Rural Irrigation Systems in Cocoa Plantations Through International Collaborations" project, in which students/faculty from both institutions will participate in courses on Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability to be able to design innovative ways to provide precision irrigation methods that support cacao production in Colombian regions affected by drought.