Campus: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo -- September 23, 2005
Cal Poly, CSU Ag Programs Join to Aid International Development
Cal Poly and four other California State Universities have joined forces to aid agriculture
in developing nations through the newly formed California State University Consortium for
International Development.
The consortium includes Cal Poly and the Chico, Fresno, Humboldt, and Pomona CSU campuses.
Cal Poly Food Science and Nutrition Professor Hany Khalil has been named director of the
consortium, and Bill Erysian of Fresno State has been named director of resource development,
and Fresno State's campus representative.
The CSU consortium seeks to aid agricultural development across the globe. The consortium has
already submitted a proposal to the Millennium Challenge Corporation to help the agency with
development in Africa, Eurasia and South America.
"We represent a core of expertise that is now available as a resource to high-priority federal
and non-governmental international agriculture development initiatives currently underway
across the globe," explained Khalil.
In forming the CSU consortium, "We recognized that each of our five core campuses in the
consortium already had very active international development programs," Khalil said.
"By combining our resources and experience, we can now offer a centralized wealth of applied
research and technical knowledge to the rest of the world. The faculty at our combined campuses
have expertise in virtually all areas of agriculture, including water management and irrigation,
food and dairy processing, enology and viticulture, forestry, environmental sciences,
agribusiness marketing, small and medium enterprise development and much more," Khalil said.
The consortium hopes to:
- Improve the economic efficiency, productivity, profitability and sustainability of
international agriculture development initiatives
- Foster consumer-sensitive and environmentally sound food and agriculture systems worldwide
- Improve public safety and health in the developing world
- Produce results and models that are easily transferable
- Foster collaboration between California State Universities, land-grant universities
and industry at the international level.
The consortium will provide a variety of agricultural and development expertise, including
international research, technical assistance, training, extension and student participation.
It also offers links to private industry agribusiness leaders throughout the United States.
The consortium will also encourage and facilitate strong collaborative applied research and
extension partnerships with other qualified universities, professional organizations, and
government institutions, Khalil said.
Contacts:
Hany Khalil, CSUCID Executive Director, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
(805) 756-2852, hkhalil@calpoly.edu
Bill Erysian, CSUCID Director of Resource Development, California State University, Fresno
(559) 278-0317, bille@csufresno.edu
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