SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER, 2018 – UWI TODAY
27
70
th
ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE
AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION PARK – ISSUE ARCHIVE MAY 2015
Two years ago,
The UWI began a project aimed to
re-engineer the local citrus industry, which has been
decimated by abandonment and low profitability.
Under the supervision of the St Augustine Campus
Principal, Professor Clement Sankat and researcher Dr.
Govind Seepersad, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Food
and Agriculture, a high-density citrus orchard was set up
at the Debe campus with funding from the Trinidad and
Tobago RDI Fund.
New field architecture involves spacing of 2 metres
within the row and 7 metres between the rows. This is
geared at high levels ofmechanization, fromweed control
to harvesting.
Faced with a shortage of plants, researchers also
decided toplant rootstock directly in the field andgraft in-
situ. This technique has two direct benefits (i) it speeds up
production and (ii) it secures your plants against thieves.
Grafting in the field also had some new advantages
in tree training where arching the branches generated
strong shoots from the new buds.
Re-Engineering
a New Citrus
Industry
Dr. Govind Seepersad checks out the first citrus yields
at the Debe campus.
For some time, the Faculty of Food and
Agriculture (FFA) had quietly been making its wish
list but found it challenging to find resources to
actualize it. Managing the 200 acres as farming land
had been quite a stretch due to limited resources to
support the development. However, as the Campus
sought external partnership for the development
of AIP, the Faculty has focused on transforming
the Orange Grove field into a productive farm
land primarily to support training of students and
research while utilizing revenue generated to offset
cost and acquire new technology.
“Growing crops on 200 acres needs to be done
with caution since it can affect the livelihood of small
holder farmers. As the farm further develops through
acquisition of value addition technologies, it will start
making seeds of certain crops available to farmers
for planting ensuring more symbiotic relationship in
pursuit of advancement of food security objectives
of the country and the CARICOM,” says Dr. Isaac
Bekele, Dean of the FFA.
Students have also been going there to do
practical research and to get hands-on experience.
It has been key as a teaching support and a site for
experimentation and internship.
Currently an experiment evaluating various
irrigation technologies is being undertaken in
collaboration with Dr. Dave Goorahoo, a visiting
professor from the Center for Irrigation Technology
(CIT), California State University, Fresno.
Dr Govind Seepersad, Deputy Dean of the FFA,
tells of the concept of ‘precision agriculture’ which
will be evaluated by an interdisciplinary team. The
precision comes from the use of remote sensing
and drone technology, exciting innovations in the
field that allows for optimal use of land and ideal
observation in order to fine-0tune cropmanagement.
“These two pieces of technology [the irrigation
systems and the drones] put us on par with the best
universities in the world,” says Dr. Seepersad, adding
that they are also working with the University of
York in Canada.
According to Dean Bekele, the initial planning
exercise for the AIP was undertaken by a team of
academics and engineers frompartnering institutions
of the Chinese Agricultural University (CAU) and
the FFA in April 2014. The implementation of the
plan has been underway in a staggered mode. For
instance, a fruit orchard is being set up on about
10 acres at Orange Grove in addition to specially
designed greenhouses of 2000m2 for testing and
evaluation for the humid tropics. The Faculty has
already established a citrus orchard in Debe on 8.5
acres; following a Brazilian model.
“We may be the originators of the Julie mango in
the world,” says Dr. Seepersad, recalling that Caroni
Ltd had a mango orchard at La Gloria in Princes
Town, but it no longer exists. Mango is moving away
from being one of the non-traditional Caribbean
food basket items, he says, for instance, “the Israelis
and Australians have been doing a lot of mango
research and are large in mangos.” These initiatives
contain enormous potential for advancing the
Trinidad and Tobago agri-food sector’s sustainable
development agenda. However, the Faculty is well
aware there needs to be investment in research and
technology for the realization of the goal. With
investment in research and technology and the
partnership already in place, a strong foundation
has been laid for sustainable advancement. It is
for this singular goal that in December 2014,
Professor K.E. Bingsheng, President of the China
Agricultural University and Professor Clement
Sankat, Principal of The UWI St. Augustine
Campus signed the implementation agreement
of the UWI-CAU Agricultural Innovation Park.
“In order to further develop agricultural
education, research, experimentation and
demonstration in agriculture, the Parties will test
new varieties, facilities, equipment, technologies,
concepts and models at the Park. The Parties
will also demonstrate cropping patterns and
production flows of distinctive crops currently
cultivated in Trinidad and Tobago,” says the
agreement.
The agreement also covers collaboration
between the parties in training graduate students
at the master and doctoral levels, and work on the
possibility of the award of joint or double degrees
to the successful candidates through a split-site
engagement.
Dean Bekele says they are evaluating and
testing new crops from China: Chinese squash,
peppers, bitter gourd, ten varieties of corn
and pumpkin while they are waiting for the
infrastructure to be set up.
“As part of partnership in training, two
students are currently at CAU pursuing the
MSc degree in plant breeding. Then they will
return to pursue the PhD programme in crop
breeding and improvement in FFA through
joint CAU/FFA supervision in the AIP facility.
Currently, Cameedra Ram and Kezia Blackman
are engaged in this programme and we are
making arrangements to recruit three more
candidates to join the scheme fromAugust 2015.”
He is proud that the AIP will be technology-
driven at every stage of the production post-
harvest chain. He says that although the AIP
is referenced as tied to the East Campus, it
encompasses the three UWI farms – Orange
Grove, Debe and the Field Station at Mt Hope
– totaling 305 acres of farm lands falling under
the management of the FFA. However, the Dean
expressed the need to further expand the farm
land area to facilitate hands on training of our
students as part of the University’s commitment
and our effort to prepare work-ready graduates.
“We have communicated this need to the relevant
authority and we await a response,” he said.
The food security agenda of the country and
the region is tied to the presence of technology-
proficient, entrepreneurial and dedicated
agricultural graduates interested in pursuing the
business of agriculture, operating in a venture
capital environment suitable for agribusiness
development. The development of the AIP will
provide the technology resources needed for the
training and the extra land will provide a useful
input for students to develop critical farming
skills utilizing technology while honing their
entrepreneurial skills.
“Let us make this happen, it is within grasp,”
says the Dean.
