“If you want to achieve big results, you have to do big things.”
These are the words of Professor Wayne Ganpat, former Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture when he was asked to describe one of the most iconic events ever produced by the Faculty, the techAGRI Expo. Professor Ganpat and his team pioneered the expo in 2017 and it continued successfully and grew over the next three years until its postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Ganpat is confident however that the expo will be held again because of the light that it shone on agriculture, not just on the campus, but nationally as well. The event ignited an interest in even the youngest of patrons, who Professor Ganpat insisted be a part of the event. He said his team’s motivation when planning the expo was for people to see, touch and interact with all aspects of the field. They wanted everyone to see that “Agriculture is alive at The UWI”.
He was appointed Dean of FFA in 2016, a post that he held until his retirement in 2021. During his time with the Faculty, Ganpat always spoke of their aim to become a centre for training and research in agriculture for the entire Caribbean. He spoke proudly of the St Augustine Campus being the only one in the network of UWI campuses that offers programmes in the field of agriculture.
Because of this service to the Caribbean, Professor Ganpat always wanted the FFA’s catalogue of programmes to be offered online, so that they could reach more people. He has been happy to see the campus pivoting to online learning over the past year and a half, and sees it as a move that could greatly impact the threats to food security, as now more people can be trained to hasten agricultural development. In 2021, the faculty transitioned all of its taught MSc programmes to a blended mode of delivery. Some new undergraduate programmes have been developed for blended learning.
When asked about what is needed to continue to keep agriculture alive in the region, Prof Ganpat spoke about the importance of technology. He explained that technologies are available now that can enable higher production on less land. He also mentioned soil-less systems, a range of protected structures to drastically reduce the hard work in the hot sun that is associated with farming, and even technologies to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
He calls on graduates of the FFA, past and present, to focus on the three most important roles that they can fulfill to propel the sector’s development:
“Ensure that production in the sector is year-round, transform the primary products into an array of value-added products, and lastly, use your social media skills to build markets for products, both locally and abroad.”
Professor Ganpat recalled another milestone anniversary that was celebrated at UWI St Augustine in 2018, the 200th Anniversary of the National Herbarium of Trinidad and Tobago. The Herbarium was originally housed at the offices of the Department of Agriculture in St Clair in the 1800s, until it was moved to the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in 1947. Professor Ganpat sees this as proof of the importance of preserving and mapping our local flora, and with the faculty now celebrating its 100th Anniversary, this shows the value and longevity of the disciplines of food and agriculture.
When asked about his hopes for the FFA’s future, Professor Ganpat wished the faculty nothing but continued success and is confident that it will be around for another 100 years.
