Origins of the Faculty of Food and Agricultire

UWI Origins of the Faculty ofSt Augustine Food and Agriculture Campus

2The establishment of an Agricultural CollegeInitial Goal: Training of men to staff the growing colonial agricul-tural services and the larger plantation enterprises.Process• In 1898 the Imperial Department of Agriculture (IDA) for the West Indies was created in Barbados. Its mandate was to conduct research on Caribbean crops other than sugar and assist planters and farmers to improve their operations by adopting scientific methods.• A Department of Agriculture was established in Trinidad in 1908, which worked closely with the IDA in Barbados.• Before the1914 war, Sir Norman Lamont, a Scottish planter and businessman who owned several estates and had strong family links to Trinidad, and Sir Francis Watts, the second Imperial Commissioner for Agriculture in Barbados, called for an agricultural college in the British Caribbean.• Sir Francis Watts, in 1917 delivered a speech to the Royal Society of Arts, in which he called for a college that would do fundamental research in tropical agriculture and train men for service in tropical conditions.• In August 1919, Secretary of State Viscount Milner set up the “West Indian Tropical Agricultural College Committee” in London. Two of its members were Watts and Lamont. The committee recommended that a tropical agricultural college should be set up in the West Indies as soon as possible, ‘to create a body of British expert agriculturalists’ versed in tropical conditions’. Debate settled on Trinidad as the location of the college, although Jamaica and Barbados were other options for its location.• In 1920 the Agricultural Society (founded in 1894) pledged

3 that Trinidad planters would contribute the initial £50,000 to the college. The government agreed to make annual grants of £2,000 and to donate 84 acres of the government estate at St Augustine for the site of the college. Pledges for annual contributions came from British Guiana (from 1924), Barbados and the Leewards and Windwards groups. Jamaica did not contribute financially because it had lost the bid to fund and accommodate the college.• In 1920 it was agreed that IDA, in Barbados, would be “absorbed by the college”, “to avoid duplication of efforts and waste of resources”. Hence staff (the Principal, several professors, some administrative staff and clerical staff) and a specialised library were transferred to Trinidad.• The West Indian Agricultural College (WIAC) was formally established on 30th August 1921 with Watts as Principal and the transfer of the IDA staff, library and equipment took place in 1921-1922.• Existing buildings on the estate were renovated and used by the college: The Yaws Hospital (The “Old Agriculture Building”) which was burnt down in 1989 served as the main WIAC building, housing the Principal’s and Registrar’s offices, laboratories, classroom and library (from IDA) and the estate house was used as the Principal’s residence.• The college was formally opened by Governor Sir Samuel Wilson on 16th October 1922, and the first students (15) wereThe YawsHospital,1922(OldAgricul-tureBuilding)

4 admitted. Eleven students were enrolled for the Diploma or undergraduate programme, five from Trinidad (one, a holder of the colony’s agricultural scholarship), five from Barbados and one from Jamaica. The other four did special courses; three were British, two of them graduates from Cambridge, the other was from Antigua.• The priority of the college was research on pests and diseases of tropical crops; entomology, mycology, plant genetics, soils chemistry and soil science were the key disciplines.• In 1923-1924 the Administration Building for ICTA was constructed; the foundation stone of the new Administration Building read: “via colendi haud facilis” or “the way of farming is not easy.” The building still serves as the Main Administration Building for the Campus. Administration Building, ICTA• In January 1924 the WIAC was re-named “The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture”, to aid fund-raising efforts. The name change was proposed by the Rhodes Trustees, who pledged £5,000.• From the inception of WIAC/ICTA and throughout its existence, the institution was run by a “Governing Body” based in London and consisting mainly of British representatives of the Colonial Office and the Colonial Governments, leading UK universities, the West India Committee and organizations like the Empire

5 Cotton Growing Corporation with an interest in tropical agriculture.• Principal Watts had pushed for an ICTA journal and in January 1924 Tropical Agriculture was started as a monthly publication. Its initial aim was public education and exchange of information, rather than a scholarly refereed journal. Between 1924 and 1954 Tropical Agriculture was published by the Government Printery, but in 1954 the decision was taken to publish it in London.The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA)• WIAC/ICTA student body consisted of undergraduates, mainly West Indians, doing a three-year DICTA programme, and postgraduates, mainly British doing courses and research projects for the associateship (AICTA) or from 1949, the Diploma in Tropical Agriculture (DTA). The student number ranged from 15 in the first year to 106 in 1956/57. From 1922 to 1960 ICTA graduated 214 persons with the DICTA; 384 with the postgraduate AICTA and 363 with the DTA.• During its existence, ICTA never granted degrees; the DICTA was not equivalent to a BSc.• There was considerable debate about the relevance of the DICTA courses to the actual conditions and needs of West Indian agriculture. ICTA was urged to revise the programme to meet “actual requirements for existing fields of employment in the West Indian Area”, and in particular, the needs of private employers (plantations, sugar factories).• In the 1930s, a two-year certificate course was offered, New Chemis- try Building (June 1929), later CFNI Building, now John Spence Building

6 which allowed admittance to students with lower entrance requirements. The demand for this programme was low and it was discontinued after a few years.• In 1952-53 Prof John Spence obtained the DTA (postgraduate diploma), having received a scholarship from the Colonial Office.• In 1952 Prof Nazeer Ahmad obtained the DICTA.• Refreshers’ courses (at least four courses, not including research thesis submission) were also offered for a one year period. Students were required to take examinations in each and on being successful, were awarded a certificate.• The first females (two in number) were admitted to the DICTA programme in 1951. Neither completed the programme.• ICTA’s farm was situated on the lands now occupied by JFK complex, the Engineering buildings, the Canada Hall and Worrel Playing Fields area. From 1942 to 1945, during the war the farm provided seeds and plants to local farmers engaged in the “Grow More Food” campaign. • In 1947 the government gave ICTA 300 acres of the “Bamboo Plantation” at Valsayn/ Mount Hope. This became the ICTA’s New Farm in the 1950s (now the University Field Station). • In 1948 University College of the West Indies (UCWI) Mona Jamaica was opened. Farm and farm build- ings at Mount Hope

7• From 1954, ICTA made its campus available to the UCWI’s Extra Mural Department for various residential summer schools and to the locals and regional governments for conferences and courses.• In June 1957 a proposal was put forward to transfer to UCWI the whole of the ICTA organization, fabric and facilities for UCWI to be developed as its School of Agriculture. In February 1958 the council of the UCWI accepted the proposal in principle.• Approval for the merger took place in March 1959 and ICTA ended its history on 31st July 1960.• The first meeting of the Interim Board of Studies of UCWI’s Faculty of Agriculture was on October 3rd 1960, chaired by John Purseglove, ICTA’s last professor of botany and first Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture.The Faculty of Agriculture• The Faculty (and campus) opened its doors in October 1960 to 67 students, 39 undergraduates in the new BSc Agriculture programme, and 28 postgraduates inherited from ICTA. The BSc replaced the DICTA programme. In 1962 the Faculty crafted its own degree programmes with specialisations in crop, animal production and farm management.• In 1962 UCWI became The University of the West Indies.• Six departments (Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Animal Production, Botany and Plant Pathology, Crop Production, Soil Sciences and Chemistry, Zoology and Entomology) were created in the early 1960s. The Faculty gave up the old ICTA farm situated at the southern part for campus expansion. Equipment were transferred to the “new farm” (The University Field Station). The Field Station later lost some lands to Nestlé, but maintained 150 acres.

8• In 1996 the Faculty of Agriculture merged with the Faculty of Natural Sciences to become the Faculty of Science and Agriculture.• In 2012 the Faculty de-merged from the Faculty of Science and Agriculture to become the current Faculty of Food and Agriculture (FFA). Frederick Hardy Building (named afer Professor Frederick Hardy, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Soil Science at ICTA) Sir Frank Stockdale (Agricultural Advisor to the Colonial Office),Building, houses FFA’s Department of Food Production and Dean’s Office Dudley Huggins Building (named after Professor Dudley Huggins, Principal of the St Augustine Campus from 1963 to 1969) Extracted from: Brereton B. 2011. From Imperial College to University of the West Indies: A History of the St Augustine Campus, Trinidad & Tobago Prepared by: Ms Sarojini Ragbir Edited by: Professor Julian Duncan Photos: Alma Jordan Library and Mr Terry Sampson July 2015