Galileo Rivas, holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences, with an emphasis on Plant Genetic Resources and Biological Interactions from the Montpellier School of Agronomy, France. He has a master's degree in Crop Protection from the Tropical Agricultural Research and Teaching Center (CATIE) of Costa Rica, and is currently an independent consultant in sustainable agriculture. He has served as a research professor and specialist in agricultural innovation. He has extensive knowledge of the rural sector in Latin America. He was linked to CATIE in Costa Rica for 18 years and IICA for 3 years. His experience in the Mesoamerican region reaches 25 years. He has published more than 70 documents related to his areas of competence. He has multiple competencies in the areas of family farming, agroecology, rural development, plant pathology and epidemiology, population genetics of pest organisms and rural extension, design of instructional materials and capacity building processes for rural families. He teaches at the postgraduate level in Agronomic Sciences. He has developed consultancies for the IDB-Fontagro, FAO and regional Foundations