{"id":15766,"date":"2011-12-01T10:47:44","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T15:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=15766"},"modified":"2011-12-01T10:48:55","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T15:48:55","slug":"cob-eyes-andros-for-agriculture-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2011\/12\/cob-eyes-andros-for-agriculture-programme","title":{"rendered":"COB Eyes Andros For Agriculture Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
At the Caleb Evans farm, COB president Dr Betsy Vogel Boze (left), professor Daniel Thompson (centre) and BAIC agriculture manager Ayret Lightbourn inspect sweet peppers grown using drip irrigation. (BIS Photo\/Gladstone Thurston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nicholl\u2019s Town, ANDROS — The College of The Bahamas has North Andros in its sight.<\/p>\n

College president Dr Betsy Vogel Boze said North Andros could be the home of the agriculture side of their small island sustainability programme.<\/p>\n

Dr Boze, Organisation of American States (OAS) Bahamas representative Juliet E Mallet Phillip, College of The Bahamas professors Lionel Johnson and Daniel Thompson, and executives of Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) toured the North Andros farming community on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The BAIC team included general manager Benjamin Rahming, assistant general managers Arnold Dorsett (agriculture) and Judith Thompson (land), and domestic investment manager Alphonso Smith.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pumpkins have arrived at the government\u2019s North Andros packing house. Pictured from left are COB president Dr Betsy Vogel Boze, professor Daniel Thompson, administrator Maxine Duncombe, and chief councillor Vanda P Rahming. (BIS Photo\/Gladstone Thurston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere is a place for Andros in our small island sustainability programme,\u201d said Dr Boze. \u201cRight now it\u2019s an academic programme but we have funding from Campbell Shipping and the Freedom Foundation to build the bricks and mortar facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think part of that, probably the agricultural research centre, needs to be located in Andros as that makes a lot more sense than having it in New Providence.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told of Andros becoming \u201ca destination location for students from all over The Bahamas\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly need to expand our reach,\u201d she added. \u201cWe are the national tertiary institution and we need to serve all of The Bahamas and that certainly includes Andros.\u201d<\/p>\n

She spoke highly of Family Island students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love our Family Island students,\u201d she said. \u201cI see a noticeable difference between our students from the Family Islands and our students from Nassau. They are so respectful and polite and focused. They are a delight to have on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Johnson is chairperson of COB\u2019s School of Chemistry, Environmental and Life Sciences which includes agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a chance to see areas where there could be collaboration between the various stake holders in North Andros and the College of The Bahamas, in particular BAIC and the Department of Agriculture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you see is the availability of land and the commitment on the part of BAIC in particular to collaborate with persons who are involved in agriculture to make initiatives work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is very promising and very helpful for individuals to know that there are partners in the field or related fields who are willing to work together to push agriculture in North Andros,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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BAIC agriculture manager Roger Rolle updates OAS Bahamas representative Juliet E Mallet Phillip (left) and COB president Dr Betsy Vogel Boze on plantings in the North Andros demonstration greenhouse unit. (BIS Photo\/Gladstone Thurston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Johnson saw opportunities for the College\u2019s small island sustainability programme to do a lot of its field work in Andros.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the opportunity presents itself it is possible that the agriculture sector of the programme could be located in North Andros,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would allow for a lot of expansion of opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kinds of opportunities that exist here we cannot do in Nassau because we don\u2019t have the same kind of space and technical co-operation that we will get here from all of the extension officers and the assistance of persons from BAIC. That would cause that programme to really flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

OAS representative Mrs Phillip was impressed by \u201cthe success stories\u201d in agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping to assist in identifying potential markets to raising the quality and making that quality consistent to raising the level of production,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Farmers here are preparing for the first harvest of the winter season with cabbages, tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, and egg plants, among products in the government\u2019s packing house.<\/p>\n

By Gladstone Thurston
\nBahamas Information Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College president Dr Betsy Vogel Boze said North Andros could be the home of the agriculture side of their small island sustainability programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[80,21,23,59,140],"class_list":["post-15766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-agriculture","tag-educational","tag-food","tag-islands","tag-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}