ABSTRACT. As part of a process of democratization and political renewal in Uruguay, the Government of Uruguay rehabilitated its agricultural research organization to create the National Institute for Agricultural Research (Spanish acronym INIA) in 1989. A public nongovernmental organization, INIA introduced a novel way of strengthening agricultural research capacity in the country by creating the Agricultural Technology Development Fund (Spanish acronym FPTA). The fund helps finance agricultural research that non-INIA researchers carry out outside INIA.

Abstract: Mixed crop?livestock long-term experiments (LTE) are critical to increase the understanding of sustainability in complex agroecosystems. One example is the ?Palo a Pique? LTE which has been running for 25 years in Uruguay (from 1995 to present), evaluating four pasture?crop rotations under livestock grazing with no-till technology in soils with severe limitations. The results demonstrate that cropping systems reduced soil organic carbon (SOC) compared with permanent pastures, and that perennial pastures rotating with crops were critical to mitigate SOC losses.

ABSTRACT. Latin America in general and the Rio de la Plata Grasslands (RPG) in particular, are one of the regions in the world with the highest rates of change in land use/land cover (LULC) in recent times. Despite the magnitude of this change process, LULC descriptions in the RPG are far from being complete, even more those that evaluate LULC change through time. In this work we described LULC and its changes over time for the first 14 years of the 21st century and for the entire grassland biome of the Rio de la Plata, one of the most extensive grassland regions in the world.

El estudio se realizó bajo la modalidad del aprender-haciendo, donde los equipos del Instituto de Prospectiva y Políticas Públicas, del Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), y Agropensa, de la Empresa Brasileña de Investigación Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA), diseñaron el ejercicio y los instrumentos para capacitar a profesionales seleccionados de los institutos nacionales de investigación agropecuaria (INIA) del Cono Sur, de modo de comenzar a construir una red de prospectiva e inteligencia estratégica en el ámbito del PROCISUR.

The emergence of new technologies, the conservation of biodiversity and genetic resources, the environmental consequences of current agriculture practices, the impacts of climate change, the gaps in 79 adoption of key technologies and the expansion of plant pest and diseases are all examples of current challenges of the food and agriculture system that requires a scientific, policy and future-oriented, regional approach.

PRÓLOGO. Los países miembros de la Comunidad Europea (CE) han desarrollado sistemas de análisis, evaluación y mitigación de las sequías mediante el desarrollo de numerosos proyectos de investigación y extensión. Estas actividades llevaron a instalar un sistema de lucha contra las sequía que ha trascendido las fronteras de la Comunidad Europea y consecuentemente se están desarrollando proyectos de lucha contra las sequías en América Latina y el Caribe (LAC), con la participación en talleres de representantes de numerosos países de la región.

ABSTRACT. Meloidogyne ethiopica is considered to be one of the most economically important emerging nematode species, reported to cause crop losses to several hosts worldwide. The significance of this species is due to its high virulence and degree of polyphagia, in addition to persisting on weed hosts within agricultural fields. This study evaluated the host status of 36 different weed species, confirming the polyphagia habit of M. ethiopica and indicating which plant species may be alternative hosts for this plant nematode.

El pasto horqueta (Paspalum notatum Flügge) es una gramínea perenne estival nativa, de hábito postrado y estolonífero, muy persistente y tolerante al pastoreo. Su centro de diversidad primario abarca a Uruguay, sur de Brasil, noreste de Argentina y Paraguay. Su forma más común es autotetraploide (2n = 4x = 40), con reproducción asexual apomíctica, aunque existen formas tanto diploides como sexuales. Estudios de diversidad genética en Uruguay muestran la presencia de diversos clones distribuidos en distintas regiones del país, y poblaciones compuestas por varios genotipos distintos.

Summary: Ensifer meliloti establishes symbiosis with Medicago sativa (alfalfa) and other perennial species of Medicago that grow in soils with neutral to alkaline pH, whereas Ensifer medicae makes symbiosis with annual medics adapted to moderately acid soils. The new species Rhizobium favelukesii, whose strain is LPU83, belongs to an alfalfa group of inefficient rhizobia, known as the Oregon type, initially represented by Rhizobium sp. strain Or191. R.