A lecturer from a UK college is traveling to Africa this summer to experience fish farming there.
Sparsholt College fish lecturer Adrian Love is heading off to Uganda to widen his technical expertise outside of the United Kingdom thanks to a £2500 grant from The Farmers Club Charitable Trust.
During July, Adrian will spend the month investigating how tropical food fish are farmed in small scale operations in Uganda.
His travels will also include a weeks’ development work at Lake Wamba, west of Kampala.
Tilapia farming
Adrian explains: "Tilapia is increasingly farmed here in the UK, on a limited, small scale but intensive basis.
"In Uganda, Tilapia farming is low key and non-intensive. The purpose of my trip is to learn how they do things in Africa and how this could potentially be applied to this growing market here.
"How we farm Tilapia here at Sparsholt is very different to the technique in Africa, but both provide valuable lessons for students.
"Hence, it is important that our students have an insight into the attitudes and pitfalls of the African style so they can apply the advantages of these techniques to the skills they have learned here at Sparsholt College."
Lake Wamba
Whilst in Uganda, Adrian will also undertake some developmental work at Lake Wamba. As an expert in fish farming techniques Adrian will be looking to see if his expertise and advice can benefit the farmers in this region.
The Farmers Club Charitable Trust was founded in 1981 to assist the agricultural community in achieving a number of objectives which will contribute to the development of the industry.
The post graduate awards are made to staff at land-based colleges and university departments to help widen and develop their own technical expertise overseas.
In 2010 there was a total of £30,000 available for up to eight bursaries.