Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaiso, Chile

The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV) was established in 1928 in the city of Valparaiso in central Chile. Today, the university has nine faculties: Agricultural and Food Sciences, Architecture, Economics and Social Sciences, Engineering, Law, Natural Resource Sciences, Philosophy and Education, Sciences, and Theology, catering to around 14,000 undergraduate students. In addition, more than 1,000 graduate students are registered in one of the 15 Ph.D. or 45 Master’s programs. PUCV is ranked the fifth best of Chile’s 57 universities, granting around 2,000 degrees per year.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences runs two major schools: the School of Agriculture and the School of Food Sciences. The School of Agriculture has around 650 students working for either a Licenciatura (equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree) in Agronomy Sciences and the professional title of Agronomy Engineer or a Master’s in Agriculture and Environmental Science. The major fields of specialization are fruit production sciences, vegetable and flower production sciences, and environmental sciences. Environmental sciences cover topics such as biodiversity, soil science, agricultural water management, soil conservation, landscape planning, watershed management, and assessing environmental impacts to and from agriculture. The School of Agriculture contributes a number of ISI papers per year, runs several research projects in both the public and private sectors, and interacts with the community through activities such as short courses, specific studies, and laboratory services, among others.

In agreement with the CNRD, the school is responsible for editing the Journal of Natural Resources and Development [JNRD]. This is an open-access electronic journal that has published one peer-reviewed paper per year for the last four years and is seeking to be included in international scientific indexes.