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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 3RD JULY, 2016
Pat Ganase is a writer and editor
DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: DR. WAYNE GANPAT
Dr. Wayne Ganpat
takes up his new
post as Dean of the Faculty of Food
and Agriculture on August 1, 2016.
Over the next four years, he will use his
expertise in “Extension” – particularly
his communications and outreach skills
– to attract students back to agriculture
and agri-enterprise; and raise the profile
of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture
as the treasury for agricultural learning,
research and technology, in the region.
Ganpat’s mission is to be an agriculturist
cultivating people.
“We have to encourage agriculture
students to think
outside the box, to invent the systems that make
agriculture, food production, an art, a joy, and a
business. We need to do this with the current students,
even as we expand the enrolment in Trinidad and
Tobago, as well as from the region and internationally.”
Dr. Wayne Ganpat is talking about the mission of
his next four years. A primary goal is to re-establish
the once vibrant presence of the Faculty in the region;
working to help governments and food producers
solve their many problems and repositioning the
FFA at St Augustine as the agricultural centre for the
region. He also hopes to build on the work started
by the retiring Dean Dr. Isaac Bekele in seeking to
harmonize the several agriculture programmes across
the region. One of his objectives is to communicate
research findings and development efforts to bring
about higher levels of food and nutrition securitymore
widely to stakeholders, and to do this by inspiring a
new generation of agro-preneurs.
The business of agriculture has changed since
Wayne Ganpat started his career as an agricultural
officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, over 30 years
ago. He believes the field is wide open for technology-
driven innovation, from growing to productivity to
processing to marketing. Because producing food is
one of the oldest professions, it suffers from the stigmas
that have attached to it over millennia: back-breaking
work at the mercy of the natural elements and the
legacies of slavery and indentureship, poor returns.
“We need to encourage people to become
interested in technology, in invention, in innovation,
and in research into the end product of agriculture
which is adequate and accessible safe and nutritious
food,” says Ganpat. His mission, he claims, is outreach:
for more people to come to agriculture as training
for life; to spread training throughout the region via
technology; to enable farmers to access information
and to do research on their farms; and to remind
governments and people across the region that UWI St.
Augustine remains the centre of agricultural research
and learning.
“At the Ministry of Agriculture, I learned the
meaning of ‘extension.’ The goal is to take the results
of research to the farmers. This means being the
bridge between what’s happening in the experimental
field and the farmers on the ground. This is how I
fell into communications, which is the answer to the
challenge between academia and the farm. I managed
training at the Farmers Training Centre in Centeno
for many years. Staying in Extension, I managed the
communications unit and did a lot of staff training. My
first foray into communications and public education
was at the regional level after the invasion of the pink
mealy bug; this was followed by the giant African snail
and West Indian fruit fly among others.”
Since then, Ganpat has taken giant steps in
research and publishing, including numerous peer-
reviewed articles, two co- edited books on sustainable
agricultural practices in the Caribbean, one on
climate change impacts on food security in small
island developing states, and a book on the History
of Extension in Trinidad and Tobago. He is currently
co-editing a book on Environmental Sustainability and
The Farmer Who’s Growing People
B Y P A T G A N A S E
ClimateChange; another onAgricultural Development
and Food Security inDeveloping Nations, and another
on Weeds of the Caribbean.
In June 2016, he was named theMost Outstanding
Researcher in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture.
“I love research and writing. Extension,
communications, is my passion,” he says. “I have
planted food, yes, when I needed to pay university
fees. I could do it again if I had to. But, look around,
there are so many opportunities for smart agri-
business. Why can’t someone collect all the CEPEP
roadside cuttings and turn them into compost for
sale? With limited land space, we need to adapt or
develop alternative systems of protected agriculture,
appropriate for the tropics.”
Dr Ganpat believes that young people can be
creative, given the right challenges. “Perhaps we need
to design interventions in the curriculum that would
spur them to become entrepreneurs. I might give
students in a class a different fruit or vegetable, and say
to them, this is your project, find out what you might
do with this to earn some money. Young people are
turned on to technology: you can run several farm
systems from a smart phone. This is where we need
to take agriculture; young people and technology are
the perfect mix to achieve this.”
Dr. Wayne Ganpat receives the award for the Most Productive Research Department from the new Campus Principal,
Professor Brian Copeland. Dr. Ganpat also received an award for Most Outstanding Researcher at the UWI-NGC Research Awards
on June 8, at the Learning Resource Centre.
PHOTO: GUYTN OTTLEY.
