The Universidad de Caldas commemorated the 75th anniversary of the creation of its first two programs (Agricultural Engineering and Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry) and the 25th anniversary of the start of the first cohort of the Master’s Degree in Agricultural Production Systems. To this end, the Symposium on Research and Extension in Agricultural Systems (IESA-2024) was held in the city of Manizales, Department of Caldas, on December 2 and 3, as an interdisciplinary forum for scientific and technical exchange on agricultural and rural problems from a systemic viewpoint.
Thanks to the CLIMAR Project of the Erasmus+ Program, which brings together different universities in Latin America and Europe, important inter-university links have been generated that allowed the participation of the Department of Tourism of the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, through its Director, Franco Andrés Bianco, to share knowledge and experiences on issues of territorial valorization, with the keynote lecture “Agro-experiential landscapes: Wine tourism in Mendoza and coffee tourism in Caldas”.
The sustainability of the CLIMAR project is based precisely on actions such as those mentioned above, generating links between universities, transfer of knowledge and experiences, success stories and lessons learned. This participation, in person, allowed us to generate links in the academic, public and private sectors, leaving the doors open to continue working on the three fundamental pillars of the project that brings us together: Climate Change, Tourism and Circular Economy.
The links generated between the University of Caldas, through Dr. Bernardo Rivera, and the Director of the Department of Tourism Franco Bianco of the National University of Cuyo, allow glimpses of possible lines of future research, such as agrotourism and climate change, local development and tourism experiences, preservation of resources and local culture linked to tourism, and the circular economy as part of the agrotourism experience.
During the academic day of IESA-2024 there were also presentations by the CLIMAR work team at the University of Caldas. Yaqueline Espinosa presented the talk “An approach to the impact of climate change on tourism supply and adaptation strategies in the department of Caldas” and Marcela Patiño presented “Visiting the basin and the experience of Vivo cuenca: contributions to a transformative professional training”. The organization of the symposium, which was very well attended, involved the participation of students from the ASPA Research Seminar, from the Agronomy Engineering and Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry programs.