PR - La Manera: Strategic Farm Management Under Uncertainty In Uruguay

La Manera case study is one of several developed for an international education programme named Improving Agriculture Students’ Understanding of Global Production Systems through Distance Learning involving cooperation between academics at four universities on different continents: Kansas State University, Moscow University, Queensland University and ORT University-Uruguay. A set of multimedia resources (written case studies and related audiovisuals) was developed aimed at helping agricultural students better understand the managerial environment faced by producers in different parts of the world. The concept, funded through a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Challenge Grant, was to develop two farm cases in each of four continents (North America, South America, Europe and Australia), giving eight cases in all that could be used as the basis for a semester-long graduate or undergraduate course in applied farm management. This paper presents one of the developed cases: ‘La Manera 2000 and 2005’ which outlines the farm management challenges and responses by a farmer in Uruguay. Part one of this paper describes the teaching objectives of the educational materials developed under the international education programme. Part two presents a summary of La Manera’s case studies. Part three presents a brief teaching note. Part four describes how the case study has been used teaching undergraduate classes in University of Queensland, Australia, and some of the results obtained.

Keywords: strategic farm management, uncertainty, international education, global understanding.