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UWI TODAY – SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER, 2018
70
th
ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE
AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION PARK – ISSUE ARCHIVE MAY 2015
In faraway days,
when the Imperial College of Tropical
Agriculture was the place the world’s academics
flocked to for training and research, ICTA was a
sizeable landowner. The College had 860 acres, spread
over Mt Hope, River Estate in DiegoMartin and Santa
Cruz by 1960.
But after the Agricultural College gave way to
the St. Augustine Campus of The UWI, it began to
lose its acreage. River Estate went to housing, and a
significant proportion at Mt Hope was given over to
the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, which
also houses the Faculty of Medical Sciences. The 100
acres that supported the University Field Station was
trimmed to facilitate the Uriah Butler Highway.
A lot of land had been lost, and the State offered
to compensate.
In the late eighties, 200 acres of land at Orange
Grove in Trincity was promised, and nearly three
decades later, tangible results are about to be seen.
Within the next few years, Orange Grove will be
the site of an Agricultural Innovation Park that will
be known as The UWI’s east campus. The AIP, one of
a kind in the region, will occupy all of the 200 acres
provided by the State, and it will feature a wide range of
agricultural concepts and activities that will stimulate
both insiders and outsiders.
How it came about is an interesting story.
Corn being prepared for planting at Orange Grove in Trincity
INNOVATIONPARK
It is on 200 acres,
just north of the Piarco International
Airport and it is irrigated by three individual water systems:
east, west and middle of the site. It doesn’t look like much
more than grass and trees these days, but when it is finished,
it will be a fascinating addition to the Caribbean landscape as
the first agricultural innovation park in these parts.
This is themain component of the UWI-CAUAgricultural
Innovation Park (AIP), a joint project of The UWI and China
Agricultural University, which is currently being constructed
at Orange Grove inTrincity. According to the design, The East
Campus site is to be divided into seven areas, technology
service (Region 1); aquatic production; leisure and recreation;
commercial, mini zoo and the two largest allocations, crop
(45 acres) and horticulture (60 acres).
While some of the teaching and learning will take place
on the 15 acres allocated to
Region 1 which will house the main building, a video
conference facility; a library; multi-function labs and
classrooms, most of the space enables an outdoor, practical
learning environment.
The 45 acres for crops will support production and
demonstrations for root vegetables, corn, pumpkin, etc, and
a plant museum. Similar use will be made of the 60 acres for
horticulture which is allocated for greenhouse production.
The leisure and recreation areas (science popularization
Zone) earmarked for 35 acres will be the spaces where most
of you, the public visitors, will become most familiar with, as
youwalk through avenues and gardens lit with solar lamps or
wind energy ones, or enter a photovoltaic building that is the
tourist centre on your way to check out the mini zoo, or the
duck pool or even the cocoa museum. In this contemporary
mix of the rustic and the urbane, you will find that man and
nature can cohabit in peace, if only humans would cherish
and respect nature’s gifts.
AGRICULTURAL InnovationPark
In the late eighties, 200 acres of land at Orange Grove in Trincity was promised
, and nearly three decades
later, tangible results are about to be seen. Within the next few years, Orange Grove will be the site of an Agricultural
Innovation Park that will be known as The UWI’s east campus. The AIP, one of a kind in the region, will occupy all of
the 200 acres provided by the State, and it will feature a wide range of agricultural concepts and activities that will
stimulate both insiders and outsiders.
B Y V A N E I S A B A K S H
