Agribusiness education stretches across borders

The Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness is expanding its offerings in Mexico. The school is collaborating with the Tecnológico de Monterrey-Sinaloa in Culiacan, Mexico, to offer a series of seven agribusiness-focused workshops during the 2008-2009 academic year.

The Morrison School faculty will provide the faculty of Tecnológico de Monterrey-Sinaloa and local agribusiness professionals with exposure to a broad range of agribusiness management fields as well as insights into the current leading issues driving agribusiness research and business strategy.

“The workshop series comes at a time when agribusiness firms are fighting to remain competitive and sustain long-run profits in an increasingly global environment,” said. Mark Manfredo, associate professor in the Morrison School. “As agribusiness firms increase the scope of their global operations, their business risks and societal risks also increase. These risks and the challenges and opportunities they present have become the focal point of many current policy discussions.”

The internationally recognized faculty in the Morrison School has worked with the Instituto Technológico de Sonora (ITSON) on research and other academic endeavors previously.

This new partnership is strengthened by the fact that Mexico is one of the United States’ leading trade partners and that the State of Sinaloa is one of Mexico’s leading states in agricultural production.

Topics for the workshops include Current Trends in Agribusiness, New Trends in Crop Production, International Trade, Food Safety, Food Quality, Risk Management, Supply Chain Management, Entrepreneurship, Food Retailing and Food Processing.

The workshop series also will assist the faculty members of Tecnológico de Monterrey-Sinaloa in their efforts to establish an undergraduate program in agribusiness.

“The Morrison School has a strong reputation for training agribusiness professionals and researchers and offers agribusiness programs from the bachelor’s to the doctoral level,” said Manfredo. “Curricula are designed to embrace a practical learning philosophy. This ‘learning by doing’ approach to agribusiness and business education and the school’s applied industry-focused economic research differentiates it from many of its peers,” he said.

Participants completing all the workshops will receive a certificate from the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at Arizona State University. The Tecnológico de Monterrey-Sinaloa is one of 33 campuses in Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, ITESM) system in Mexico.

Chris Lambrakis, lambrakis@asu.edu
(480) 727-1173
Public Affairs at ASU Polytechnic campus

Michelle Wolfe, michelle.wolfe@asu.edu
Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness