Caribbean, Pacific students converge at UOG for agriculture internship

College students from the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, CNMI, Guam, Palau, and the FSM are on the University of Guam campus through June 23 participating in a three and a half week summer internship under the CariPac consortium, which is a program through which all the land grant institutions in the Caribbean and the Pacific collaborate and share information about agricultural innovation, research and applications.

“Students will participate in a variety of field observations and hands-on laboratories where they can observe and learn about the agricultural businesses and activities that are found on Guam,” said Dr. Prem Singh, UOG faculty member and CariPac Internship Program Coordinator.

Students will visit a variety of farms including the Department of Agriculture organic farm; the Triton Farm’s aquaponics facility; the Watson vegetable/fruit farm which uses a drip irrigation and fertigation system on a farm scale, and utilizes many innovations in its operation; the Ernie Wusting Corn Farm which utilizes a no-till corn production method and which has reduced soil erosion and increased soil depth; Quan’s Coconut Farm which supplies fresh coconut drinks to the tourism industry; and the Hydroponic Living Lettuce farm and local plant nurseries to learn about the business and production aspects of modern agribusinesses.

They will also visit the ecotourism facility Hamamoto Fruit World to observe how to combine tourism, ecology, vegetable and fruit production, and post harvesting and processing to develop a business enterprise.

In the UOG labs they will learn about plant propagation and grafting and agricultural engineering technologies for Sustainable Tropical Agriculture. The students will learn how to setup an automated micro-irrigation system, irrigation controllers, and learn about water harvesting canopies among other activities. They will also learn about biotechnology in agriculture and observe juvenile shrimp production facilities at UOG’s aquaculture facility and how Guam is fighting the invasion of Rhino beetle that threatens the existence of coconut trees on Guam.

“This is an all encompassing three and a half weeks where these students get the opportunity to absorb information that they can take back to their home islands to enhance their own agricultural economies,” said Lee Yudin, Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences and Principal Investigator for the consortium grant.

For more information contact Dr. Prem Singh at psinghedu@gmail.com. [I](UOG)[/I]