Visit by Ms Elvina Smith, Lecturer from CUT, South Africa

"Ms Elvina Smith, Lecturer, Central University of Technology (CUT), Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, was at the Faculty of Agriculture, from the 18th June 2018 to 25th June 2018, in the context of her PhD study on entrepreneurship education in the field of environmental health, food hygiene and safety. During her visit, Ms Elvina Smith interviewed academics and students of the Faculty of Agriculture. She also had the opportunity to meet the Senior Management of the University of Mauritius, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and key informants from external organisations in the public and private sectors. Ms Elvina Smith delivered a very "enterprising" presentation entitled "Higher Education: South Africa, Sweden and Mauritius, a road towards entrepreneurship", on Monday 25 June 2018 at the Faculty of Agriculture. The aim of her research is to learn from entrepreneurship education in South Africa, Sweden and Mauritius to develop an alternate syllabus in food safety to contribute to improved job skills and innovative ways to address unemployment."

Contributor: Mrs Esha Aumjaud, Faculty of Agriculture

Aquaponics : an alternative and sustainable technology for farming

In the Budget 2018-19, the Minister of Finance Pravind Jugnauth announced that the government will provide funds for the sensitisation and training of households in aquaponics for the production of water adaptive vegetables in freshwater ponds and basins and that the Albion Fisheries Research Centre will provide fish fingerlings freely for the aquaponics projects. Aquaponics is considered as an alternative and sustainable technology for the Mauritian farming industry and an economic alternative for the importation of food crops. Stakeholders share with News on Sunday their views on the feasibility of the measure announced and how to promote Aquaponics in Mauritius.

Sunita Facknath, Professor in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Mauritius: “The measure must be accompanied by local research to determine the right type of aquaponics”

What are your views about the measure announced in the Budget?
It will help in increasing the share of animal protein in people’s diet, and fish is a good and healthy source of protein and good cholesterol. People will also have fresh and healthy vegetables grown in the aquaponics system.It is also an environmentally friendly way to increase food production while making optimum use of available water, of available space, growing vegetables with little or no fertilisers added, and avoiding the pollution caused by dumping effluent water from aquaculture into the environment.
Do you believe that this measure is sufficient enough to promote aquaponics?
The training and awareness-raising is a start. For it to bear the envisaged fruits, it must be accompanied by local research to determine the right type of aquaponics. There are several ways in which aquaponics can be set up. We need to determine which set-up and type is most suitable for different purposes in the Mauritian context. We need to determine the appropriate conditions, in terms of the water quality, the species and type of vegetables and fish which can be grown in such systems, the number of fish that can be placed in a given size of tank, the safety aspects of the vegetables and fish in the aquaponics system, among others.
What additional measures do you believe should be introduced and why?
In the near future, other measures will have to be considered - establishment of standards and norms for the quality of vegetables and fish emanating from aquaponics, registration of aquaponic businesses for traceability purposes, subsidies on the inputs required, fiscal incentives to those practicing aquaponics as a business, training of extension staff so they can provide right advice and guidance to those practicing aquaponics, and so on.
The Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Mauritius is currently working on a research project on aquaponics, to determine the optimum water quality, species of vegetables and fish to grow together in the aquaponics system, the appropriate density of the fish, the right filter quality, and other similar parameters. This project will provide the necessary data to help us establish a bigger, field level aquaponics unit, and we will be looking for partners in the public and private sectors to partner with us on this bigger project. Source; News On Sunday 23 June 2018

Tackling Climate Change in Agriculture: Approaches to climate change adaptation and climate smart agriculture in SADC

This week  CCARDESA in collaboration with the University of Mauritius is implementing a regional training course on Tackling climate change in agriculture: approaches to climate change adaptation in agriculture and climate smart agriculture. The training was officially launched by Professor Dhanjay Jhurry, CSK, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mauritius. In his opening speech, he highlighted climate change as major concern not only to the agricultural sector in Mauritius. Prof. Jhurry reminded the audience that the world needs to shift to a more sustainable use of resources to reduce GHG and thus protect the biodiversity of the planet. This requires more investment for research and development. He emphasised the importance of strengthening the capacity of all stakeholders in the Mauritius agricultural sector to respond to the challenges posed by climate change.

 

Associate Professor Daneshwar Puchooa, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Mauritius in his opening speech remarked on climate-smart agriculture as a key approach to increasing agricultural production in the context of climate change. The Faculty of Agriculture (FoA) therefore strives to prepare their graduates and stakeholders from society for the science and private sector and updates its programmes to meet the needs. Finally, Dr Wiebke Foerch, programme officer for the SADC programme on adaptation to climate change in rural areas in southern Africa (ACCRA), has been representing CCARDESA at this event. She highlighted the impacts of climate change on agriculture in the SADC Region and elaborated on the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy, which provides the policy framework for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture sector and calls for policy harmonisation with national policies.

 

The training is being implemented by the University of Mauritius in collaboration with CCARDESA and with support of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ). The objective is to strengthen the capacity of the SADC member states for climate change adaptation in agriculture and climate smart agriculture. It is a 5-day training of agriculture research and extension officers from FAREI, research officers from the University of Mauritius, and agro-business representatives. The training brings together technical expertise with the Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Co-operation Climate Proofing Tool, as well as a field excursion and interactive group work.

 

To learn more about the CCARDESA training package on Tackling climate change in agriculture, click here. To see previous CCARDESA trainings, visit here. To learn more about the Training in Mauritius, stay tuned.

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This article was written by  Dr Wiebke Foerch. Dr Foerch is a Programme officer for the SADC programme on adaptation to climate change in rural areas in southern Africa (ACCRA) which is being implemented by CCARDESA in collaboration with GIZ.

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GRADUATION CEREMONY FOR THE DIPLOMA IN FORESTRY AND FISHERIES IN RODRIGUES - 2018

The first batch of students of the Diploma in Forestry and Fisheries, which was launched in 2016, graduated on the 11 June 2018 after 2 years of study. The graduation ceremony was held at the Mon Plaisir Cultural Centre, Rodrigues and was attended by the Chancellor, Dr J.C. Autrey, the Vice Chancellor, Prof D. Jhurry and other officials of the University.

Training Agenda “Tackling Climate Change in Agriculture: Approaches to Adaptation and Climate Smart Agriculture in the SADC Region”

GLOBAL SOIL PARTNERSHIP Plenary Assembly - Sixth Session 2018,

Prof B. Lalljee at the FAO headquarters, June 2018

The Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly (PA) constitutes the main venue where all GSP partners come together to make important decisions about the global soil agenda. Prof B.Lalljee of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius, is the representative of Maurtius at the 6th PA of the Global Soil Partnership being held at FAO headquarters in Rome from 11 to 13 June 2018