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News : Local Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM


BAMSI hosts Extension Programme
By BAMSI Bahamas
Jul 21, 2016 - 6:22:39 PM

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As part of its commitment to nation building and the development of a cadre of trained specialists within the field, The Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) is set to host its Inaugural Agricultural Extension Training Programme, July 19 – 29 at its campus in North Andros. The intensive two-week schedule, which will consist of hands-on field experience as well as lectures by BAMSI faculty and University of Florida professors in Agriculture Extension, is an important push for recent graduates who are set to take on the role of professionally-trained extension officers by the end of the summer.

With a shift in the Government’s focus on Food and Nutrition Security, the provision of trained agriculturalist will ensure the attainment of the goal as well as the sustainability of this nation’s environment thereby supporting the government’s efforts to bolster food security measures across the archipelago. Godfrey Eneas, President of BAMSI and The Bahamas Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said the objective of this exercise, and ongoing educational opportunities offered by BAMSI, is to revitalize an Agricultural Section which had declined in acreage in production from about 90,000 acres in 1978 to about 10,000 acres in 2012.

He explained that in 2012, 200 persons were employed within the Ministry of Agriculture, but only ten per cent of that number were professionally trained. What perhaps served as an even greater detriment to the forward movement of agriculture in the Bahamas was that of the 200, nearly 90 per cent were located in New Providence – an alarming statistic when it is considered that a significant majority of farmers live and farm in the Family Islands.

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These front-line professionals will drive the expansion of the Sector by providing technical expertise through the transfer of innovative technologies thereby improving the competitiveness of the small farmer, specifically those who are members of the Associated Farmers’ Programme.

The course is not only open recent graduates and students nearing the completion of their degree programme but also to agencies like BAIC and Department of Agriculture as they have been invited to attend. The accredited course, which will be led by extension and integrated pest management specialists from the University of Florida, will be offered on a yearly basis going forward and those who successfully complete the session will receive a certificate. Along with the knowledge gained over the course of two years of study, these two weeks will serve as an orientation period before they move into the field. Participants will be placed on Family Islands – from Eleuthera to Abaco and particularly the southern islands – under the tutelage of senior extension officers, a number of whom have been recruited from Trinidad.

“The aim is to place our graduates in all of our islands with the view of developing farmer’s groups in every island, and nationally a network of farmers who over time can position themselves as a powerful lobby so that the needs of the Bahamian farmer will never again be neglected or forgotten,” Mr. Eneas said

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