Attendees were able to learn a general diagnosis regarding agricultural police, in addition to some case studies in countries in Africa and Asia, and to a lesser extent in Latin America.

With significant attendance, the talk “Towards a global system for monitoring and analyzing agricultural policies in developing countries” was held, given by Dr. Cristian Morales, principal economist and technical coordinator of Agrarian Policy of the Organization of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recently held at the Limarí Campus of the University of La Serena.

Agricultural policies, rural development and food security are closely linked. FAO's efforts are precisely directed towards the search and establishment of a system that allows countries, especially less developed ones, to monitor the policies implemented, under common standards and criteria in order to then make comparisons and make more integrated decisions. There are a series of methodological tools that can be implemented, and that is precisely what the talk was about in which attendees were able to learn a general diagnosis regarding agricultural police, in addition to some case studies in countries in Africa and Asia, and in less measure of Latin America.

The activity was carried out within the framework of the Agricultural Extension subject of the Agronomic Engineering degree at the ULS. In this sense, Dr. Héctor Reyes, professor responsible for this course, pointed out that it was a great opportunity to have this speaker, “largely because of his links with the course, since he is a graduate of ours, and with the region, which that allowed the talk to materialize. As an FAO official, Cristian comes regularly to Chile and has always been willing to carry out these activities, especially aimed at students. So much so that at the end of his presentation he invited the students to look for internship spots in Rome or Santiago for which he offered his support.

Cristian Morales joined the Agricultural Development Economics Division of FAO/ESA in 2009 as an economist in the policies, prices and markets group. In this group he monitors the effects of policies on food markets and trade in developing regions. He also participates in the FAO pricing team, assisting in the development of indicators in developing countries to facilitate analysis of local market trends. 

Since January 2014, he has been principal economist and technical coordinator of Agrarian Policy at FAO/ESA. Before joining FAO, he worked for two years in the Economic Research Services of the Directorate-General for Agriculture of the European Commission in Brussels, focusing on international food security issues, such as market integration of developing countries. . He also participated in USDA's initiative to strengthen market information systems in Central America and Haiti. 

Cristian Morales obtained a Doctorate in Agricultural Economics from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (2006), a Master in Agricultural Economics from the University of London (2007), and has a bachelor's degree as an agricultural engineer from the University of La Serena (2002).