Between February 11 and 13, Eduardo Graterol, executive director of FLAR, participated in a series of activities organized by the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA) within the framework of the 1st International Rice Meeting in the Ebro Delta, Spain. This event brought together nearly 300 professionals from the sector, including representatives from industry, research, and public administration from all over Spain.
The Meeting addressed the main challenges of the rice sector, with special emphasis on the effects of climate change. Its objective was to establish an action plan to ensure the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the crop. María del Mar Català, IRTA researcher and organizer of the event, extended the invitation to the executive director of FLAR to share his experience with the public-private collaboration model in Latin America, with a view to applying it in the Spanish context.
On February 11, Eduardo Graterol participated in a strategic reflection exercise on the future of rice in Spain. This activity, held at the IRTA Amposta Experimental Station, brought together key figures from the sector, including representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), the Valencian Institute of Agrarian Research (IVIA) of Valencia, producer cooperatives, the Secretariat of Agriculture of Catalonia, as well as researchers and technicians from IRTA. During this session, Graterol had the opportunity to present FLAR’s work and vision.
During the XVIII Technical Rice Conference, which took place on February 12 at the headquarters of the Rice Farmers Cooperative of the Ebro Delta, Graterol gave a presentation in the plenary session dedicated to Latin America, highlighting both the achievements and challenges in the production of rice efficiently and sustainably.
With the aim of learning firsthand about the rice region of the Ebro Delta, on February 13 Graterol joined a tour that included a visit to a rice cooperative, the irrigation community, and the Ebro Delta Natural Park.
At the end of the conference, María del Mar Català expressed her satisfaction with FLAR’s participation: “The trigger for this meeting at the state level has been precisely to have the presence of FLAR, which has undoubtedly had an incalculable value. I must confess that I have high hopes that the possibility that Spain be part of FLAR will begin to be considered. After yesterday’s work day, everyone was pleasantly enthusiastic about what this link with FLAR can offer ,” Català stated.
This is how some Catalan media recorded this Meeting: