Agronomist, with 25 years of experiencie in rice research and research management at INIA Uruguay. Since 2005 Executive Director of the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice - FLAR based at CIAT in Colombia. FLAR gathers more than 30 rice related private and public institutions in 17 countries in an alliance with CIAT. Main focus of FLAR actions in Latin America is on a cooperative breeding program among members and on closing yield gaps among farmers in the region, through better crop management, expanding irrigation and strenghtening institutional organization.