Announcing the 2020 Nuffield International Scholars

Antonio Bunster Zegers is an agronomist and winemaker in central Chile. Antonio manages a mixed farming operation with 30 hectares of sweet cherries and a grass-fed beef cattle herd (130 head/year on 90 hectares of pasture). The farm has a seven-person team to manage the farming and the operation’s 220 total hectares. In addition, he started a small-scale winemaking project, sourcing grapes from centuries-old, dry farmed vines from traditional Chilean wine regions such as

Maule and Curico Valleys. Antonio’s fi rst vintage was bottled in 2018 and total production is roughly 1,500 bottles per annum.

In central and south Chile, many rural households depend on grape growing for a living. Industry consolidation has led to larger and increasing competitiveness in the wine sector which has brought about challenges for small producers to make a living from their eff orts. Antonio plans on exploring how impoverished communities can be bolstered through multi-sectorial approaches to support agriculture, winemaking, and tourism.

This scholarship is made possible by an investment from TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture and Exportaciones Meyer Limitada.

Antonio holds diplomas in organic agriculture and agribusiness management and a degree in agronomy from Pontifi cia Universidad Católica de Chile. He and his wife have a young daughter

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Ingrid Caron, from Goias in Brazil, receives a scholarship supported by TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture. Ingrid will research how production systems under challenging climate and environmental conditions, such as those of the Brazilian Cerrado, implement sustainable and more efficient models for cattle nutrition via forage plants (genetics, use of unconventional plants and alternative managements). This is as a result of her involvement in her family’s cattle ranch.

Her professional work is divided into two operations: 1) Production of beef calves. At Fazenda da Grota, she works with the production of Nelore calves and crosses between other breeds for the fine meat market. It is a medium ranch, working with approximately 500 cows in the breeding season. She is responsible for breeding operations, nutritional management, purchases, payments and pasture fertilisation planning. 2) Certification Services. Her family operates two agricultural

certification companies, focused on organic certification programs, international and national standards and her role is Technical and Quality Director.

Ingrid has a Postgraduate in Beef Cattle Production – Rehagro (dec/2020), and Agriculture Engineering (ESALQ/USP – 2015). Ingrid is also Commission Coordinator for the Organic Production State Commission (CPOrg/Goiás). She is also a member of Grupo FAZ – Sucessoras do Agro (Formosa/GO), a group constituted by women successors of family-owned agriculture businesses.

For her scholarship, she will travel to Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona in the United States of America as these regions have climate and environmental conditions close to the conditions of central Brazil. She will also visit Australia and New Zealand.

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Shota Morigami is a first-generation farmer in the Kyoto region, and the first Nuffield International Scholar from Japan. Shoto runs two agricultural operations: Agri Shonoya, a 12-hectare farm growing green onions with a staff of 20, and Kyonegi Samurai, an agribusiness focused on selling produce.

For his Nuffield International research, Shota will explore marketing all over the world. His intention is to focus on Japanese restaurants overseas, investigating how Japanese agriculture and foods are promoted and received globally.

This inaugural Nuffield International scholarship in Japan is supported by Norinchukin Bank.

Shota is a graduate of Nara Agricultural University. He and his wife have three children.

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