MEXICO
GENERAL COORDINATOR FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT, SECRETARIAT OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Salvador Fernandez-Rivera works for Mexico´s Ministry of Agriculture, where he oversees policies on rural development and agricultural science and technology. After earning a Ph. D. in Animal Science in 1987 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in USA, he taught at the University of Chapingo in Mexico. From 1991 to 2007 he worked as scientist with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), a center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research system. In ILRI he conducted and led research on the role of livestock in nutrient cycling and the improvement of food-feed crops in crop-livestock systems. He also coordinated a research program to sustainably improve the productivity of crop-livestock systems in countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. From 2007 to 2014 he served as Coordinator of Research, Innovation and Outreach of Mexico’s National Forestry, Crops and Livestock Research Institute. From 2014 to 2018, at the Interamerican Institute for Technical Cooperation on Agriculture, he led the technical cooperation among IICA’s 34 country members on issues related to family farming, inclusion, sustainability, resilience and competitiveness. Currently, at the Ministry of Agriculture, he leads the implementation of a rural development model based on participatory approaches, technological innovation, extension services and investments in productive and marketing assets in Mexico’s poorest family farming communities. In 2003 he was recipient of the American Society of Animal Science Bouffalt International Animal Agriculture Award.