SUNDAY 23 APRIL, 2017 – UWI TODAY
11
Dr. Wayne Ganpat
PHOTO:
KEYON MITCHELL
Agriculture to explore, among other things, the science and
practice of aquaponics, hydroponics, tissue culture, vermin-
culture, composting, grow rooms, chocolatemaking and the
National Herbarium.
“We’re trying to show them the science behind
agriculture,” Dr Ganpat explained. “We want them to see
that it is possible to work in agriculture smartly and make
a successful career out of it.”
In a sense, TechAGRI represents the convergence of
academic research and commerce to fulfill economic wants
and needs via innovative applications of home-grown
agriculture products.
Applying new technologies can make agriculture
sexier, increase farming and investment in the sector and
contribute to a more diversified economy.
For decades, the trend in agriculture has been a steadily
declining contribution to national Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), with the dollar value of agricultural output standing
at just 0.3% currently.
The pervasive attitude towards agriculture is
overwhelmingly negative.While the demand for agricultural
products continues to escalate, young people are not
attracted into a profession considered to be “uncool”.
“As a result, most people involved in agriculture are
aged. The elderly dominate the sector because they grew up
in it but their offspring are not being attracted into farming,”
Dr. Ganpat said. “My vision is to change this image into
something more interesting. Everyone would benefit from
that. We want to see increased enrolment in the Faculty
of Agriculture where we offer programmes in Food and
Nutrition, Geography, Environmental Studies… the entire
eco-system of agriculture.”
Globally, agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry,
with thriving sectors in many developed economies,
particularly the European Union and the United States.
Those economies have the advantage of being heavily
subsidised by their governments, keeping production costs
down. They also have the advantage of being early adopters
of agri-technology.
“They’ve learned that larger land spaces are not
mandatory as farmers can use more technology to increase
their efficiency and quality. You don’t need a lot of land when
you can produce crops just as successfully in a room under
lights 24 hours a day,” the Dean said. “They are extensive
purveyors of organic farming and vertigrow systems. There
is greater emphasis on safer, more organic and natural
products.”
BEAUTY BARS AND COFFEE BEANS
It’s Friday evening on the opening day of the Expo, and
the sun is dipping in the West; the tents housing exhibitors
have gone soft from earlier rainfall; the clouds have lifted,
exposing a crisp freshness in the air. The rush of students
had ebbed and a different crowd streams in; a constant flow
of after-work patrons. They are blasted by the aromas –
sweet, medicinal, balmy, fruity, earthy – finding them just
as intoxicating as the earlier visitors.
Just next to one of the booths selling luxury handmade
soaps, something else tickles the nose – a single earthy
aroma providing a refreshing escape from the olfactory
bombardment – home roasted, 100%Trinidad coffee beans
and grounds.
“One thing I really want to see is greater awareness
of local coffee in Trinidad because a lot of people did not
think that we had really good coffee, Floyd Homer, founder
of Café Vega told
UWI Today
in between questions from
curious visitors.
He said many Trinidadians misguidedly believed Blue
Mountain coffee to be the Gold Standard. Most have not had
coffee roasted professionally in Trinidad from the different
local varieties. They are unaware of the quality that exists.
His Café Vega line is derived from a single bean, or
a single variety from a single location. Most supermarket
brands are ‘bulked’ coffees, sourced fromdifferent locations.
The difference with a single bean is a consistent roast and
flavour across different batches.
“I want to make more people aware of what we have
right here,” Homer said. “I hope people are prepared to
support coffee production and expand it, and rebuild a
coffee industry for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Homer’s coffees were previously available throughword
of mouth only but he seized the TechAGRI expo to launch
the Café Vega brand to the national community.
Throughout the exhibition, he said he’s received
expressions of interest from several persons with boutique
shops and cafes who were interested in representing his
brand or using it in their shops.
“Some people even expressed interest in learning about
growing coffee to get into the supply side of the business
and a few others had an interest in setting up their own
roastery and trying to do coffee of their own. I encouraged
everyone. There is room, the market is big enough for
everybody,” he said.
Many of the entrepreneurs appear to share this
magnanimous view. They implicitly understand that they
are involved in something bigger than themselves.
Joanne Raymond of AL Organic, maker of a range
of organic based beauty bars, said the sales and brand
awareness arising from TechAGRI were not the primary
reasons for participating.
“We always looked at it as ‘great we can sell and people
will become aware of the products’, but beyond that it’s
really good for young entrepreneurs to realise you can
think outside of the box and actually make an added value
based product and maybe form a small company and start
commercial distribution. That’s where we started and that
entrepreneurial spirit is what we want to spread among
our visitors.”
In similar vein, Ganpat’s end goal is not simply boosting
student enrolment in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture,
but rather national development.
“The Government and theMinistry of Agriculturemust
be the leaders but we at the Faculty have to be amajor player.
Our role is human resource development and research. We
have a very active research programme, and with the right
direction we canmake a significant contribution to national
food production and development.”
Tied to that objective is the creation of a food secure
nation, against a backdrop of dwindling food production,
foreign exchange constraints and dependency on external
sources for basic food items. He questioned what would
occur in the event of an outbreak of disease that affects
livestock or wheat crops in the US.
“Wouldwe stop eating bread and roti? Climate change is
happening, global politics are uncertain; the time has come
for us to be able to stand on our own.”
Ganpat cited the example of domestic milk production
as an exemplary model employing hundreds of tiny farmers
in a highly-organised collection system.
“If everyone produced a basic amount of food and we
organised some sort of system to collect it we’d go a long
way in creating food security,” he concluded.
Sherry Ann Singh is a freelance writer
