SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER, 2017 – UWI TODAY
13
ALUMNI
Applying their education
, preserving traditional values, and
expanding communications through social media tools, three
graduates of The UWI have been awarded opportunities to
network with Young Leaders of the Americas through an
initiative of the US Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago.
Brent Eversley, Kristle Gangadeen, Keron Bascombe,
and their associates, are not uncommon in their generation.
They demonstrate the smarts, the agility and enterprise to be
innovative and worthwhile contributors, not just in Trinidad
and Tobago, in the world. Through YLAI, they will be hosted
in the USA during October and November with opportunities
to learn and teach, to share experiences in – but not exclusive
to – agriculture, clean energy, e-commerce, education,
entrepreneurship, health care, hospitality, marketing, and
branding, among other fields.
BUSINESS WITH FRIENDS
Brent Eversley belongs to a “liming group” of five friends
who met at university and stuck together after graduation “to
do small promotions, parties, and entertainment gigs.” The
group created a model cooperative: two years of talk (research
and development) created a plan, which they are executing,
managing to ensure growth and sustainability. With Eversley’s
leaning and leadership, they entered the wide open field of
agri-business.
In 2012, they launched Green Farm Nation and started
hydroponic lettuce production a year later on a 5,000 sq ft
house lot. Last month, they moved to a three-acre field in
Carlsen Field, Chaguanas. Using small space technology, they
grow several varieties of lettuce, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes,
and micro-greens for local supermarket chains. Each of the
five directors: Eversley, Myron Edwards, Micah Sobers, Fidel
Wellington, Marvin Edwards – have different expertise and
career paths – finance, engineering, tourism and marketing,
agribusiness. Brent runs the farm. But they all come together
for the weekly harvest. There are other regular meetings to
assess the business, to plan the way forward.
Eversley is fully employed as operations director of the
farm. He holds a BSc in Agribusiness Management with a
minor in Environmental and Natural Resources Management.
A five-year stint working through the ranks of the Trinidad and
Tobago AgriBusiness Association (TABA) provided hands-
on experience and further training: greenhouse technology,
project management and farm management. When he was
retrenched from TABA in 2012, Green Farm Nation was
born. The next business development is agro-processing: they
have already started in a modest way “de-leafing” lettuce and
packaging in ready-to-use containers. They are looking at
inputs to traditional food manufacturers – dried chadon beni
or pepper mash – while developing their own processes and
products.
“We have unique agri-products that the world requires,”
says Eversley. “Our vision is to be competitive at local, regional
and international levels. We are working with a network of agri-
business producers throughout the Caribbean – from soaps to
fresh food. People don’t like to share their techniques, but we
can share information.”
GRANDPA’S ORIGINAL RECIPE
Kristle Gangadeen, a marketing graduate from UWI in
2009 and the Arthur Lok Jack Business School in 2015, co-
founded Awe’dis (Awesome Distributors) in 2013. The first
product was Grandpa’s ponche de crème sold at the seasonal
artisan markets of that year.
The idea for Grandpa’s emerged when Johan Sherwood,
The Future in their Own Hands
UWI grads get Young Leaders of the Americas awards
B Y P A T G A N A S E
Gangadeen’s student colleague at business school offered his
grandfather’s recipe for a test marketing case. This exceptional
ponche de crème kept paranderos coming to Grandpa’s door
every Christmas. “We have used the original recipe, based on
local rums and spices,” says Gangadeen, “and we will introduce
a newflavour, caramel cappuccino this Christmas.”This month,
she launched her website
and is also
on Facebook.
This year, Gangadeen was retrenched from the Tourism
Development Company. A national scholar, she grew up in
Santa Flora where her grandfather and father worked in the
energy sector. Today, she is happy to have a small business with
huge potential, and intends to develop it carefully. “We will use
recipes for awesome TT traditional foods, elevate them, market
locally and then push on the world market.”
Gangadeen became aware of the Young Leaders of the
Americas Initiative when she attended the launch of Virtual
Reality Pan created by Dingolay Ltd, owned by an alumnus
of YLAI.
SMARTPHONES FOR AGRICULTURE
Keron Bascombe is in agribusiness but has no farm.
His fields are the hearts and minds of farmers, aspiring
agri-preneurs and ultimately, communities everywhere that
grow healthy on the products of farmers. He started his blog
promoting agribusiness in 2011. Today the Tech4Agri website
is a forum and education site, a virtual hub and network for
everyone involved in agriculture and agro-production, in
Trinidad and Tobago and regionally.
Bascombe considers himself a “freelancer in agricultural
journalism and communications.” He uses and trains others in
the use of social media – “mobile journalism” and smartphone
technologies (filming and editing) – to promote “innovation in
agriculture, research, agribusiness, entrepreneurship, science
etc.” Tech4Agri works throughout the Caribbean, with seven
volunteer members in Trinidad, and three partners from
Dominica and St. Kitts.
Although most farmers may not be into the new
communication technologies, their children are. Tech4Agri
provides training in the use of social media for communication
and management; attracting a younger generation back
to agri-business by sharing information and fostering
inter-generational communication. “Not everyone has the
opportunity to pursue further education – especially in
agriculture – but the website is a regularly updated source
of information from around the world.” See
.
tech4agri.com/ for news, training opportunities, innovations
in agriculture education and practice.
Bascombe says, “Tech4Agri is changing the way we
communicate about agriculture, and hoping to change the
dynamic of the sector, attracting young people back to the
important business of food production.”
UWI supports a small office on campus for Tech4Agri;
and some funding comes from the Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) which is based in
the Netherlands. “I am a consultant with CTA; and I volunteer
with the Young Professionals for Agricultural Research and
Development (YPARD) serving as the country representative
for Trinidad and Tobago.” Bascombe is an ambassador for
the Thought for Food Organisation; and Tech4agri serves
for the next three years as the Youth representative (local) on
the Steering committee of the Global Forum for Agricultural
Research (GFAR).
Bascombe is currently working on his Master’s in Agri-
business communication at UWI St. Augustine.
Kristle Gangadeen has been making and marketing Grandpa’s
ponche de crème from an original recipe since 2013.
Keron Bascombe on stage in the final round of the Pitchit Caribbean
Mobile app Development Challenge. Tech4agri’s app is called
Agriyouth and is one of the few apps that have been part of the
regional Caribbean Mobile Innovation Programme (CMIP).
Brent Eversley is the co-founder and operations manager of Green
Farm Nation.
PHOTOS COURTESY THE AWARDEES
