THE Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Guyana (UG) hosted its annual Staff and Students Review Conference, at which final year undergraduates continued presenting their research projects.

Starting Thursday, a total of 22 projects were presented by the targeted researchers over the two-day period ended yesterday.
Delivering special remarks yesterday, at the event in the Faculty Building, was Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Mr. David Devine, who said he believes that the students’ project on post plantation management of acacia plants on mined out sites in St. Elizabeth, Mahdia, Mazaruni, is very important and can even be a “game changer” for the industry.
“Canadian mining companies, there are many that are here, can learn quite a lot from the instructions that you’ve given and it certainly will be my intention to be able to speak to those companies concerning the results of this particular study and to encourage them, wherever possible, to incorporate the findings and practices that you’ve developed here,” he offered.
The diplomat disclosed that the Canadian High Commission, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), contributed approximately G$20M towards the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Project.
He said this sub-project has built on past re-vegetation accomplishments under Guyana’s Environmental Capacity Development Project, in which students from UG were engaged in piloting the acacia plants on mined out sites.

Vegetable crops
Devine said the work under the sub-project involved monitoring the groves of the acacia plants but, most significantly, the introduction of vegetable crops at the project site.
He said:“CIDA has been following this project very closely and can attest to the high level of knowledge and expertise in re-vegetation demonstrated by the students involved in the project.”
The envoy said Canada is committed to environmentally sustainable mining and is very pleased to be working with the Guyana Government to develop indigenous models and techniques aimed at rehabilitating mined out sites.
He revealed that Canadian companies represent the largest international investment in Guyana’s extractive sector, with 28 of them being involved.
According to him, the partnership with UG is just one of many initiatives Canada has undertaken in the extractive sector.