This international planning grant will support travel to Brazil by Dr. Silveira, Dr. Vendramini Schaffer, and two US graduate students from the University of Florida, and Dr. Jim Muir, from Texas A&M University to work with Brazilian collaborator Dr Jose Carlos Dubeux at Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (URFPE). The goal of this planning visit is to support the development of research projects to develop technology that enables greater persistence of existing planted grasslands in Brazil. This collaboration will also be used to establish graduate student and faculty exchanges to increase awareness of the international dimensions of grassland agriculture and develop a web site for promoting debates and presenting information related to grassland degradation
