Luis Flores
Department of Community Sustainability
Adjoint Assistant Professor
Natural Resources480 Wilson Rd Room 131
East Lansing MI 48824 US
Dr. Flores’ career has evolved as an international projects manager focused on horticulture, particularly in facilitating small farmers’ compliance with international grades and standards in export markets. He has been involved as a principal investigator in projects financed by the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Through these initiatives, he has worked with several professionals in various fields and institutions such as FAO, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Trade Organization and faculty from collaborating departments in MSU as well as with other universities. His research spans to Latin America, South-East Asia, West and East Africa and has enabled him to participate with different teams both on project development and implementation as well as on research. He has co-authored peer-reviewed research in leading journals such as Food Policy, American Journal of Agricultural Economics and has published project reports available through different on line sources.
The latest projects led and coordinated by Dr. Flores include the current and successful MASFRIJOL financed by USAID, and the Mejoramiento Agricola Sostenible (MAS) in Honduras financed by USDA; the implementation of four-country project on Bean Technology Dissemination (BTD) in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti. BTD reached over 100,000 farming households in four countries with improved bean varieties and other technologies that enabled them to increase productivity and incomes while improving their food security.
Other recent experience includes his services as an Agricultural Value Chain Specialist on the USAID Projet Croissance Economique in Senegal where he supported value chain development in the Senegal River Valley, carried out value chain benchmarking analyses in Mali and Burkina Faso and mentored 14 master’s students in the area of Agriculture Value Chain Management at the University of Thiés. For USAID in Burundi, he served for five years as a Horticulture Value Chain Specialist focused on local and regional markets. In Rwanda he coordinated the World Trade Organization-funded initiative titled Rwanda Horticulture Export Standards Initiative, where he co-developed the regulatory framework for the Ministry of Agriculture to enhance Rwanda’s access to regional and international markets. The work implied modernizing the plant health laws in harmonization with regional and international standards.
Dr. Flores also served as a technical and administrative coordinator (based in MSU) for the 10-year project Partnership for Food Industry Development (PFID) project in Central America. Particularly in Nicaragua, Dr. Flores supported agribusiness expansion of small and medium horticulture enterprises reaching over $45M in sales in three years.
An agronomist by training, Dr. Flores received his M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University where he also completed his PhD in Community, Agriculture and Resource Studies. In addition to his native Spanish, he speaks fluent English and French and conversational Haitian Creole.
Selected Publications
- 2014
Baributsa, Dieudonne, L. Flores, D. Rukazumbuga, and J. Wise. Assessing IPM Knowledge in Rwanda: Case Study of Pest Management Specialists and Recommendations for Improved IPM Knowledge Dissemination in Support of Specialty Crops Exports. (Under review). - 2010
Tschirley, D., L. Flores, and D. Mather. Análisis de políticas agrícolas y de seguridad alimentaria en Centroamérica: Evaluación de la capacidad institucional local, la diAssessing Local Institutional Capacity, Data Availability, and Outcomessponibilidad de datos y resultados. Available in Spanish and English. - 2008
Horticulture Sub Sector Value Chain Studies: Tropical and Temperate Climate Fruits and Vegetables Tropical and Highland Cut Flowers and Ornamental Plants
2007
Reardon, T., J.A. Berdegué, L. Flores, F. Balsevich, and R. Hernandez. Supermarkets, horticultural supply chains, and small farmers in Central America. FAO Commodities and Trade Proceedings, 2:95–104. - 2006
Reardon, T. and L. Flores. Viewpoint: “customized competitiveness” strategies for Horticultural exporters—Central America focus with lessons from and for other regions. Food Policy, 31:483–503.