Coffee control

Coffee borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is the worst insect pest for coffee plants in the cloud forest ecosystem where our farmers eke out a living. New graduate Mauricio Colquehuanca -- our first this year! -- defended his research project about how the biocontrol the fungus Beauveria bassiana grows at different levels of humidity. He discovered that this pest-killing fungus will not grow at all above 75% humidity, and even better as the humidity increases. This information helps us improve how we mass produce the fungus effectively in the lab, to help farmers control this devastating pest.

Here Mauricio contemplates a question put to him by his defense committee. Good job Mauricio!

More SDSU

Collaborators with the College are in Carmen Pampa to help us design a system of land restoration that will help farmers in the region make use of degraded land in their communities. Here are some more pictures from the visit.

Our visitors did workshops about land restoration and how to measure success. In this photo, our faculty, some students and visitors from South Dakota share lunch.




Here South Dakota State professor Dr. Neil Reese explains the fine points of plant pressing to our student Vicente Manrique as volunteer Kate interprets.




Dr. Tom Schumacher from South Dakota State University explains the importance of organic matter in a restoration demonstration in the field.




Karla Witt from Sisseton Wapehton College, volunteers Kate and Sam and the head of tourism Jose Luis took on some young men from Carmen Pampa in B-ball -- and won!

South Dakota

Visitors from South Dakota arrived a few days back.


Here they are arriving at the airport.




Here we are enjoying New Year's dinner at the Hotel Esmeralda.




I will write more soon -- after getting some sleep!

Cochabamba

I visited Cochabamba for a day just after Christmas, and spent the day with Brother Ignacio, a Franciscan friar. Brother Iggy is the director of a project that provides health services to some underserved communities outside of the city.

Three students from the College now work in this project, two nursing graduates Willie and Genoveva, and a vet student Félix.



Here we are at lunch.

These young people were chosen by Brother Iggy to study at the College because they were already serving their communities, volunteering in the clinics that the Franciscans run around Cochabamba.

And they are back at it now. Brother Iggy describes the nurses as invaluable to the rural health services they are providing, and Félix needs just a few more months to finish his fieldwork, researching the parasites in sheep where he is working. This is the kind of success we expect from our students.