Scholars to visit Sheffield Mills as part of global tour

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Sheffield Mills will host soon some visitors from down under.

As part of the 2009 Nuffield Scholars Global Focus Tour, two recipients of the scholarship from Australia will visit the Sheffield Mills Community Centre to make presentations about their farming operations and events in their country. Discussions on the global state of agriculture will follow the presentations. The event takes place Saturday, March 21 beginning at 7 p.m.

Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture President Richard Melvin, one of the organizers of the tour visit, says it’s always good to get as broad a perspective as possible on the issues and opportunities that involve agriculture. The Nuffield Scholars are in the midst of a global tour looking at agriculture around the world and will offer some up-to-date perspectives on global agricultural trends.

He said the relevance of the information the scholars will provide to our local area would range from very broad issues such as environmental sustainability and macro-economic trends to very specific technical production insights, depending on the expertise of the individual scholar. “This area was chosen because each year a group of scholars visit Canada as part of their international tour,” Melvin said. “The tour visits western, central and eastern Canada on a rotating basis and this year it is the good fortune of eastern Canada to host the tour.”

There are four past Nuffield Scholars from Nova Scotia: John McLean from Pictou County and three from Kings County, including Fred Walsh, John Lohr and Richard Melvin.

There will be a $5 per person entry fee. For more information, contact organizer John Lohr at (902) 582-7847.

About the scholars

The visiting scholars are Stuart Barden and David Cussons. Barden, from Gilgandra, New South Wales, Australia, received the 2009 Nuffield Scholarship supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation for growers in the southern grains region. He will study grain growing in marginal and low rainfall areas with the aim of producing better and more consistent yields and improving water use efficiency through micro-water harvesting.

Barden and his wife Annie farm four properties in central western New South Wales, growing 12,000 hectares of winter crops, including wheat, barley, chickpeas, field peas and canola.

He plans to visit Israel, Africa, Mexico and Kazakhstan in 2009 to investigate grain growing in other low rainfall areas and to identify new or alternative methods of monitoring and improving water use efficiency in dry land farming systems.

Cussons, from Kojonup, Western Australia, received the 2009 scholarship supported by Australian Wool Innovation. He will study how agricultural industries can develop modern communication strategies to improve public perceptions of farming and agriculture in the media.

Cussons manages his family’s mixed wool and cropping property in southern Western Australia with his wife Kelly and his parents. The 1,000-hectare property runs 2,400 Merino ewes for wool and prime lamb production, with 270 hectares of winter cereal production.

Cussons will investigate the communication strategies used in response to the agricultural crisis of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or Mad Cow Disease), foot and mouth disease, equine influenza and Australian sheep mulesing practices. He plans to visit the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Japan to identify common themes in industry responses to these issues and to develop guidelines for improved communication.

About the Nuffield organization

The objective of the Nuffield Canada Farming Scholarship is to develop leadership from within Canada’s rural industries, communities and the practice of agriculture. Each year, Nuffield Canada grants limited scholarships to a few applicants who are Canadian citizens between the ages of 25 and 45 who already work in agriculture. Selected applicants are those the selection committee feel will be able to contribute and innovate within their respective fields upon their return to Canada.

Worldwide, Nuffield farming scholarships has just celebrated its 50th anniversary and, over that time, scholars from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, France and Ireland have traveled the world seeking new technology, ideas and approaches.

Over the years, scholars have been instrumental in raising the standards of a wide range of farming and rural industries by introducing new ideas and methods of working based on studies undertaken during their scholarship tenure.

Nuffield Canada was a project originally introduced and financed by the Nuffield Foundation in England. Lord Nuffield, the British manufacturer of Morris cars, created the foundation. For more information, visit www.nuffield.ca.