SUNDAY 8 APRIL, 2018 – UWI TODAY
3
EDITORIAL TEAM
CAMPUS PRINCIPAL
Professor Brian Copeland
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Dr Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
EDITOR
Vaneisa Baksh • email:
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997
or email:
Now that access to foreign exchange is proving a daily
challenge to business and individuals alike, it is time to
resurrect the old refrain – ‘buy local’ and turn our much
touted creativity into profitable endeavours.
Out of evil can indeed come good. For farmers,
entrepreneurs, and financiers alike, there is opportunity
to be had in the current scenario. We just have to ‘go brave’
as they say, seize the moment, and take that leap of faith
in ourselves and our abilities.
Our Faculty of Food and Agriculture produces
graduates who continuously innovate and expand the
agricultural industry. These research outputs often go
begging for investment to allow for commercialisation.
The failing is in ourselves that those who can help are often
locked into a bureaucratic treadmill that blocks visionary
thinking. Some manage to overcome these stumbling
blocks and return to techAgri to proudly take their place
as Agro-preneurs – those who blend agriculture with
innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Expo featured a tremendous variety of local
agri-based products. Dean Ganpat’s team organised a
mini market and mini workshops and guided visitors to
our Cocoa Research Centre and the National Herbarium
located on our St. Augustine Campus.
It was a fine meeting place, and now that The UWI
has created the platform and provided the opportunity, I
urge everyone, whether you are an investor, a Government
body, an international agency, an exhibitor, someone
involved in agriculture, or simply a member of the public,
to see this event as a place to connect to the ideas of self-
sufficiency.
TechAGRI was a complete manifestation of our
capacity to look after ourselves and future generations
– the ultimate measure of sustainable development
Agriculture is no longer confined to the realm of farming,
and the range of connected industries can provide us
with many opportunities to develop thriving spin-off
industries.
Our oil legacy lured us into letting these opportunities
fall by the wayside, as the special report on Buffalypso in
this tenth anniversary issue demonstrates. But it is never
too late to change course, and as we know, adversity breeds
innovation.
Our economic circumstance can be seen as an
opportunity to spread out and secure our future prudently
and creatively.
PROFESSOR BRIAN COPELAND
Campus Principal
Th i s ye a r ma rk s t he 70 t h
anniversary of The UWI
and
our service and leadership in the
Caribbean. Along with our network
of more than 120,000 alumni, we are
proud of the fact that our graduates
are represented at the highest levels
of the public and private sectors,
and among all the professions.
From one century to the next,
The UWI has remained committed
to advancing learning, creating
knowledge, and fostering innovation for a sustainable
Caribbean. It is for this reason that techAGRI 2018 is such a
major 70th anniversary event.
InMarch last year, we recorded 8,000 visitors to techAGRI
– almost 3,000 were students and teachers.
Dean of the host Faculty, Dr. Wayne Ganpat, has often
declared that his intention in staging this techAGRI is to raise
the profile of agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago and in the
region and to re-establish the reputation of the Faculty of Food
and Agriculture as the leader in agricultural education and
research in our region.
Ask anyone who attended last year – it was a memorable
experience and demonstrated quite comprehensively that the
future of agriculture lies in the latest innovations of our young
agri-entrepreneurs. This year was no different, as crowds
thronged our West Field to take part in the many interactive
displays on show.
As I visited techAGRI again on the second day, I was
keenly reminded of the Kenyan proverb “Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents. It is loaned to you by
your children.” This proverb is sometimes used to explain the
concept of sustainable development – development not simply
for this generation but for future generations also.
I was heartened by the number of “young” persons I
saw actively participating in the Expo. I am told there were
approximately 4,000 students from various primary and
secondary schools who visited and, from the looks on their
faces, enjoyed the Expo. As Campus Principal I was even
more pleased to see the young members of staff and students,
bedecked in their FFA techAGRI tee-shirts. Agriculture
and food security are national, regional and global priorities
and not only for economic reasons. Indeed, agriculture is
a development priority as evidenced by the pivotal role it
plays in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). It could be seen as the common thread holding the
17 SDGs together.
Returns from timely investments in the agriculture sector
will yield benefits to our country for generations to come.
Here in Trinidad and Tobago, we have grown accustomed
to a wide variety of food and drink, brought here from all
parts of the globe for our enjoyment. Along with this easy
access has been an unnerving increase in obesity and chronic
lifestyle diseases.
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
WE CANMAKE OUR BEDON AGRICULTURE
CAPTURING INTEREST: It was a wonderful bit of exposure for the
thousands of students who swarmed the Admin Field at tech-AGRI
2018. The idea is to capture their imaginations with the possibilities
that await them.
PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM
PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM
PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM
PHOTO: KEYON MITCHELL
