Via colendi haud facilis. It means “the way of farming is not easy”. The words are carved into the foundation stone of the Main Administration Building of The UWI St Augustine Campus. The message - and the building - predate the creation of The UWI by more than four decades.

They are an artifact of the St Augustine Campus’ ancestor, the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA). They are also some of our most potent artifacts of the development of higher education in Trinidad and Tobago, the rise of St Augustine as the heart of UWI in T&T, and the origin of what today is known as the Faculty of Food and Agriculture (FFA).

This year, tracing its roots all the way back to ICTA, the FFA celebrates its 100th year as the nexus of education, research, outreach and thought leadership in agriculture and its related fields.

Under the theme “The Centennial Legacy of Agriculture at The UWI St Augustine”, the FFA has engaged in activities such as tree planting, several virtual events and special publications of their faculty magazine, Tropical Agriculture, and a newspaper supplement that can both be viewed online at the FFA site: https://sta.uwi.edu/ffa/100-years-agriculture.

On August 30, 1921, the West Indian Agricultural College at St Augustine was formally established. It was very soon renamed ICTA.

“It opened its doors to 15 students in October 1922,” says Bridget Brereton, Emerita Professor of History.

She adds, “ICTA existed until 1960. It built up an international reputation for academic research on tropical agriculture, with a focus on entomology, mycology, plant genetics, soils chemistry and soil science.”

Today, the FFA has inherited and expanded tremendously on ICTA’s legacy. In academic year 2019-2020, more than 850 students were enrolled at the faculty. Not only do they offer programmes in agriculture, but also human nutrition, food service management, environmental and disaster risk, geography, family and consumer science, entrepreneurship, agri-business, and communications and extension.

Over the decades, the FFA has carried out an enormous amount of research that has not only benefited the local food production sector, but has made a lasting impact on the region. That impact is also felt through the sharing of knowledge and expertise with regional governments and international organisations. In addition, they offer services like soil and water quality testing, as well as plant health services, to the public.

From the UWI Field Station, FFA’s 55-acre farmland in Valsayn, they not only provide a space for research and teaching, but also offer field trips for students and private groups. The university farms even sell some of the highest quality, locally produced fresh poultry, pork, beef and goat, as well as cow and goat’s milk.

It’s quite an evolution from St Augustine’s founding as a higher ed hub so many years ago.

Emeritus Professor in Botany professor Julian Duncan was a lecturer during UWI’s first years. He recalls those times fondly, and sees his decision to take up a post at the fledgling university as one of his most important.

“Coming here, and coming in the pioneering days, I can look back with satisfaction at what I was able to achieve, which I would not have been able to do abroad,” says Professor Duncan.

He became the sole botanist at the College of Arts and Sciences at UWI St Augustine in 1963 (ICTA became the St Augustine Campus in 1960 and the university became UWI in 1962 when it achieved independent status from the University of London). As such, he served both the College and the Faculty of Agriculture. A pioneer himself, Duncan is one of the Caribbean’s most important educators in botany and tissue culture. His tissue culture research led to the development of methods for mass producing plant materials for several plant species.

In his recollections of that time, Professor Duncan stresses the sense of purpose that both staff and students shared. They were Caribbean people, in post-colonial societies, working to develop themselves and their young Caribbean institution.

“There were people who did not have the resources to go abroad and study, and this was the perfect opportunity,” he says. “They came in with a more mature approach. They had a focus on why they were here. They were getting an education for the improvement of the country in which they lived.”

This is perhaps the greatest difference between ICTA and the FFA - the people the institution was created to serve.

“[ICTA] served the interests of the British Empire rather than the West Indies (hence the change of name). It had minimal links to the local educational system and was regarded (correctly) as a closed British enclave situated in Trinidad,” says Professor Brereton.

As the FFA evolved, so did its sense of purpose.

Professor Laura Roberts-Nkrumah is part of the subsequent generation of agricultural scientists who came of age in the 1970s.

“I had the privilege of being part of that illustrious class of 1978,” she says of her time as an undergraduate at the Faculty of Agriculture (as it was then called). Today she is a highly regarded professor of crop science and production who spent more than 30 years as an educator and researcher in the Department of Food Production.

Professor Roberts-Nkrumah is also known for her game-changing work in breadfruit, work that has the potential to not only expand local production for export, but also make a serious contribution to food security. This is perhaps one of FFA’s most important missions, creating the environment and advocating for Caribbean society to feed itself.

She draws the link between the ideas being developed during the 1970s and her own approach to food production:

“It was a time of a lot of social revolutions. UWI’s student body was very vocal and we took the opportunity to discuss what was going on. It shaped our perspective on Caribbean agriculture.”

Today, the FFA is very focused on food security, nutrition through eating local, entrepreneurship, technology, research, and attracting new generations to take part in agriculture and food production, and its related industries.

In 1921, agriculture may not have been easy, but it is easier in 2021. That is in no small part because of the collective efforts of the faculty, administrative and support staff, and the students themselves. We can only marvel at what the next 100 years of FFA will hold.