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José Gallardo Helps his Country Through Crisis

When Covid numbers began climbing, the Panamanian’s duties switched from training ranchers to feeding a country.

Por TCU Magazine

15 de February de 2022

By Mariana Rivas

As a rancher in Panama, José Gallardo ’18 was used to managing livestock and keeping financial records. But he never expected to have such a direct hand in feeding Panama’s entire population of 4 million.

Gallardo works with Panama’s government to source biweekly food packages for Covid-19 relief. He and his team manage over $600,000 worth of food every day. He never received any formal training for this work, but, he said, “The vice minister probably trusts in my number skills.”

With more than 300,000 total Covid cases by mid-January 2021, Panama established strict lockdown measures, including a nationally mandated curfew and mobility hours.

Panama’s vice minister of agriculture formed a team to assemble and distribute food packages to citizens who lost employment. Gallardo originally was hired as the department of agriculture’s technical assistant to investigate the profitability of potential projects for the government. But when Covid case numbers grew, his tasks changed to sourcing dry food with the country’s largest producers.

Each food parcel consists of easily packable and deliverable staples such as rice, beans, meat and vegetables. Some of Panama’s most vulnerable normally don’t have access to such a wide variety of nutrients.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations calculated that in 2015 about 6.9 percent of Panama’s population was undernourished, compared with 2.5 percent or less in the U.S. and most of Europe.

Indigenous Panamanians living in rural areas experience malnourishment and extreme poverty at 5 times higher rates than their non-Indigenous counterparts, according to a study the FAO published in 2014. High rates of undernourishment result from a combination of factors including a lack of access to a variety of nutrients and underdeveloped distribution networks.

José Gallardo, a rancher, stepped up to help his native Panama during the pandemic. Photo by Ana Rentería

“As a country, they have the production capabilities to be self-sustaining. They have the natural resources to do that,” said Jeffrey Geider ’81, the William Watt Matthews Director of the Institute of Ranch Management at TCU. “What they don’t have necessarily is the infrastructure and the education” to efficiently distribute and produce food.

The Institute of Ranch Management began building a partnership in Panama more than 10 years ago. Recognizing that sustainability is a global issue, Geider and his volunteers have been traveling to Panama and other countries such as Brazil, Ghana and the U.K. to create student exchange programs, form relationships with agricultural leaders and train food producers in the developing world.

Food production is “a global effort, and it’s not something that really knows boundaries,” Geider said.

The institute has given lectures to food producers and university students in Panama for years. The custom courses, ranging from two-day workshops to two-week certificate programs, serve as abridged versions of the yearlong course of study offered by TCU’s ranch management program. Students learn about livestock production, climate, grazing systems, accounting principles and marketing.

Food production is “a global effort, and it’s not something that really knows boundaries.”

Since graduating from the yearlong program in 2018, Gallardo has served as the instructor for most of TCU’s ranch management courses all over Panama.

“What we’re trying to teach all of our students, whether they’re here domestically or internationally, is the proper land stewardship and natural resource management,” Geider said.

The institute emphasizes sustainability and efficiency within all aspects of ranch management, like maintaining a profit and using resources like water, food and soil prudently.

Geider and his team routinely visit alumni of the educational programs in Panama. The team measures factors such as soil nutrients, pasture growth and the health of the cattle to track changes.

“We have been able to see a dramatic increase in productivity, and at the same time, these producers are engaged in land stewardship that is very environmentally protective,” Geider said.

Gallardo was a senior-level animal sciences student in a TCU Institute of Ranch Management course at the University of Panama in 2016. Geider said he was impressed with Gallardo’s eagerness to learn.

“He was there early, stayed late, interacted with me and the rest of the group that were teaching,” Geider said. “He showed an incredible desire to further his education.”

Geider said he seemed like the perfect candidate to be the first Panamanian to graduate from the on-campus program.

José Gallardo uses TCU’s ranch management lessons to make his home country stronger and healthier. Photo by Ana Rentería

'The Texas of Panama'

Ranching was Gallardo’s childhood. He grew up in Volcán, Chiriquí, a province with ranches sprawling in all directions. His father grew up on a coffee farm and also produced food for cattle and other livestock. At his elementary school, Gallardo learned ranching and animal science. Gallardo called Chiriquí “the Texas of Panama” for its economy largely based on agricultural and livestock production and its strong rodeo culture.

He said he never really thought of doing anything else.

“I just liked to work with Mother Nature, and I really liked to protect the environment,” Gallardo said.

He got a scholarship to study at Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School in Honduras for three years but finished his degree at the University of Panama.

When he attended the TCU institute’s course, the way the faculty approached learning caught his attention. They taught hands-on, showing real examples and making sure students could do everything themselves.

Gallardo has worked on ranches for nearly a decade but still felt there was more to learn. He accepted Geider’s offer to study at TCU at age 25 and traveled to the U.S. for the first time in January 2017.

Gallardo said he learned most of his “street” English from tourists who traveled to Panama, so he joined TCU’s Intensive English Program that semester to take his conversational skills to the next level.

The Institute of Ranch Management is an outreach and research institute that focuses on resource management and production principles. Courtesy of TCU Archives

His initiative to learn continued in the U.S. Outside of class, he practiced his language skills with a conversation partner. He completed what Geider called independent study during term breaks.

He read trade magazines and worked as a volunteer laborer on ranches all over Texas to get comfortable with the trade in English.

But once ranch management classes started in August 2017, he found his own experience managing ranches most helpful and adjusted easily.

Gallardo said his classmates “believed that I had a big ranch, that I was a big guy here in Panama, and I told them, ‘No, I don’t have nothing like that. I just got the opportunity.’ ”

Geider said Gallardo graduated with exceptional grades.

“He loves his country, and he’s very committed to achieving the level of success in food security that they want,” Geider said. “And as a single individual, he’s making a difference doing that.”

José Gallardo Helps his Country Through Crisis

More Than a Handout

Shortly after graduation, Gallardo returned to Panama. He started working with the vice minister for agriculture’s cattle development program in partnership with TCU’s Institute of Ranch Management.

He traveled to a different town in Panama every week, teaching ranchers how they could use the institute’s philosophies in their work.

He taught producers to effectively collect and store rainwater during Panama’s wet seasons to last through the dry seasons — something ranchers had struggled with.

Gallardo said ranchers were intimidated by American techniques at first. But eventually he appealed to them.

“I was a country boy talking to country people,” he said. “We were talking in the same language that they understood: not too much rocket science.”

Gallardo and the institute team modify lectures to cover Panamanian climates and cultures.

Institute volunteer Craig Cowden ’10 RM explained how they taught livestock ranchers to pick out the best characteristics in their cattle to produce meat and dairy.

In America, “we provide dairy products using a certain dairy breed, and we provide beef using a beef breed,” Cowden said. “But there, they’re trying to select characteristics in animals that would provide both.”

Geider said it’s important to distinguish the institute’s work from what might traditionally be associated with global aid. It promotes self-sufficiency through education rather than simply donating equipment or food.

“We don’t try to impose what we think is right in their country,” said Geider. “We try to use what they do.”

Odalis Jaramillo manages a pig ranch in the Boquete District in Chiriquí. She attended Gallardo’s course in July 2018 as an agricultural engineering student at the University of Panama.

“I have attended several courses, but I feel that the one where I was able to grasp things the most was this one from TCU,” she said.

Jaramillo said she still implements the institute’s practical tips, like vaccinating cattle in the neck because that’s where their meat is less valuable.

Joseph Grajales, a faculty member of the University of Panama in Chiriquí, was inspired to do more research after he finished the course in July 2019.

When the Covid-19 crisis hit, José Gallardo went from teaching ranching techniques to helping feed his country. Photo by Ana Rentería

Grajales began to look into livestock buying and selling trends. He noted the cheapest price per head and compared that to forage availability. His data helped him make informed purchasing decisions.

Gallardo said he hopes to get back to teaching after the pandemic.

“I come from a small family. We didn’t have the resources to pay for a high-level education,” Gallardo said. “Life gives me the opportunity, and my responsibility is to try to teach people and show them that they can study.”

Gallardo is one person making a difference in food security amid ever-increasing environmental threats.

And Geider said the Panamanian’s influence can grow exponentially. “If we can contact 10 people, then 10 people contact 20.”

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