M. Jatib et al. / The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Vol 5 Iss 3 2003
state of affairs left out many professionals, entrepreneurs and government officials
unable to afford training abroad.
The School of Agronomy of the University of Buenos Aires came to realise the
importance of addressing the issue and created the food and agribusiness master's
course and the food and agribusiness executive management postgraduate courses
that offer a world-class syllabus. The public University had rightly understood that
these changes had come to stay6. Besides, the system of awards to scientific
production, in force at the beginning of the 90s, had not only ignored the
development and transfer of technology but had rendered the University of Buenos
Aires incapable of facing the changes experienced by the country during that period.
Also, the emergence of private universities following criteria of academic excellence
and strong interaction with the private sector warned public authorities as to the
need for change in public education.
Introducing changes in the University of Buenos Aires -with over 200,000 students
and boasting the only 5 Nobel Prize winners in Argentina- is not an easy task.
However, in the mid 90s, various academic departments began to innovate in
response to what was going on “in the outside world.” They were able to revive the
criteria of academic and scientific excellence as well as the social role of University
in its search for solutions to the most pressing problems in society7.
The Food and Agribusiness Programme was created within that organisational and
academic context, later to be followed by the executive management postgraduate
courses in food and agribusiness. Given their characteristics, they all manage to
integrate public university academic excellence with training requirements of
human resources in the private sector and offer, at the same time, to finance
postgraduate training activities tailored to their needs8.
1.2 The Food & Agribusiness Programme and Professional Training
The Food and Agribusiness Programme (FAP) was created in view of institutional,
organizational and technological innovations introduced in the agrifood sector and
of significant institutional changes in public universities. This Programme got full
support from the public sector -including the Secretariat of Agriculture and the
University of Buenos Aires-, as well as from the private sector -agribusiness firms,
banks, and service companies among others- by way of training, consulting
services, R&D and the deployment of skills.
Further support came from the Argentine IAMA Chapter and the faculty of the
Agribusiness Programme of the University of Sao Paulo (PENSA)9. PENSA is a
6 Cetrangolo & Ordonez; 1999
7 Cetrangolo & Ordonez; 1999
8 and 9Cetrangolo & Ordonez; 1999
9 Decio Zylbersjtain y Elizabeth Farina