Dr. Julio A. Berdegué is the FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean since 2017. Previously, he was the Principal Researcher at the Latin American Center for Rural Development (Rimisp) in Santiago, Chile, where he coordinated the Territorial Cohesion Working Group, spearheading research, policy support and capacity development programs addressing issues of territorial inequality and rural development. Dr. Berdegué has published and worked extensively on different aspects of rural development, such as territorial development, rural non-farm employment, the changing structures of agri-food and rural markets and their impact on small and medium producers, and enterprises and the role of small and medium cities in rural development. He has written and edited several books and dozens of articles in international scientific magazines, some of which are among the most-cited in their respective fields, and has advised national and regional governments in several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. Dr. Berdegué has been a board member of several international organizations, including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which he chaired from 2008 to 2011, and the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED). A national of Mexico, Dr. Berdegué holds a Ph.D. in Social Science from Wageningen University, The Netherlands and a Master of Science degree in Agronomy from the University of California-Davis, USA.