Irapuato, Gto., April 23, 2018.- Dr. Luis Antonio Parra Negrete, a professor-researcher of the Division of Life Sciences of the University of Guanajuato (UG) gave a series of conferences, courses-workshops and work tables to boost the incipient agroindustry of the Andean agave, in the provinces of Pichincha, Imbabura and El Carchi in the Ecuadorian Andean corridor.

By an invitation of the National association of the Production Chain of Penco and Cabuya, the professor gave first a theoretical-practical workshop of the comprehensible and sustainable handling of Ecuador's Andean Agave, known in that country as "pencos" or "tzawares".

He also trained technicians of the Pichincha provincial government and participated in an agreement meeting about a national plan to develop the productive chains of penco (Agave americana sbsp. andina).

Dr. Parra, made a sabbatical year from September 2015 to October 2016 in the Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi (UPEC) in that country, he detected the great opportunity to have a comprehensive and sustainable use of these plants that, in large quantities are found without any use and seen mostly as weed, in a wild and semi-domesticated state as living fences, from the north to the south of this vast country.

With 17 students' and Dr. Parra's collaboration, on March 29, 2016, the National Association of the Agave of Ecuador (ANAGAVEC) was formed. Currently, this organization groups 130 partners between producers, harvesters, produce and byproduct processers of the Andean agave, investors, technicians, scholars and researchers.

After working for two years with ANAGAVEC, these plants from the Agave family begin to be acknowledged, for its ecological and economical benefits at the reach of most people of the rural communities in the agricultural & livestock development in that country. Hence, the important work of the professor representing the University of Guanajuato, in the development of this incipient agroindustry, but with a great value for Ecuador.

With the purpose to achieve a greater interaction in the institutional level, some proposals are being prepared to create a collaboration between the University of Guanajuato, ANAGAVEC and two universities of Ecuador.

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