Govt growing school agriculture push

The agriculture and education ministries are joining forces to expand the school greenhouse programme, with plans to add 13 more structures to embed agriculture more deeply into the education system, Minister of Agriculture Dr Shantal Munro-Knight announced on Friday.

The initiative, to begin in the new school year, will see students becoming more involved in the development of the greenhouses, rather than simply benefiting from completed projects 

Dr Munro-Knight revealed the plans as a month-long agriculture summer camp, involving more than 20 students, ended.

The new approach is aimed at giving students a more hands-on understanding of agriculture by involving them in construction, she told Barbados TODAY:

“Normally what would happen is that we would get our experts to come in and just build them. Minister Blackman and I have said no, we actually want the students to actually be part of the building out again because looking at agriculture [is] not only just about the planting of the food, but again the architectural design.”

Dr Munro-Knight said students would also learn about greenhouse design, the impact of weather and heat, as well as agricultural technology and practical skills.

“What does it take in terms of understanding how weather impacts? When you build up the greenhouse, and you’ve got to look and see how the heat does come in and how they bend, and they expose. You’ve got to build up your boxes not on the ground but with a low height, so we want the kids to be exposed to all of that.”

The farm minister said the government also intends to establish a cooperative structure around school agriculture programmes, allowing students to gain experience in agribusiness.

Under the proposed arrangement, schools would be able to sell produce grown by students through an off-take agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, with funds returning to support school programmes.

Dr Munro-Knight said: “The ministry would commit to having an off-take contract that schools, once they’re [up] to quality and everything, then that money goes back into the school to either help them with their agricultural programme or whatever it is that they want to do, but so that the kids can also understand agribusiness.”

The programme will require additional training for teachers as government works towards making agriculture a more permanent part of the education system. To this end, both ministries are exploring the development of a full agricultural curriculum for schools, she said.

“We’ve tasked both of our teams to then look and see how we actually build up then a full agricultural curriculum within our school system. That is something that we would do over the long haul, so we’re building; we’re going to start with our greenhouses, start with the training, etc. The teams will step back and kind of work until we get to that point, but that is the end goal.”

Dr Munro-Knight acknowledged that interest in school agriculture programmes has been growing, but said training remains one of the limitations.

“There are some schools that are doing it, and I’ll be very honest with you, the demand has also been very high in terms of getting the greenhouses. I think it is a limitation just in terms of again in terms of training, but there are some schools, for instance Springer Memorial… who’ve been doing agricultural programmes and stuff like that consistently. So we’re really building on, in the first instance, those schools that are already interested and are already doing it as well.”

The programme will initially focus on schools that already have faming initiatives and the interest and capacity to expand:

“We’re going to start with those that have enthusiasm for those schools that are ready, for those teachers that are willing, and then move to the next stage.”

(LG)