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From the Ground Up

Last summer, Nasser Brahim, 21, found himself among the Kipsigis of Kenya, a pastoralist-turned-agrarian tribe that lives in the southern highlands of the Eastern African country. The graduating senior spent three weeks there, surveying the Amala River’s watershed and interviewing small farmers in the highlands about their use and management of the area’s natural resources.

Brahim’s once-in-a-lifetime research opportunity was funded by a grant from FIU’s nascent Agroecology Program. Established in 2005 in the Department of Environmental Studies, this curricular program provides students with an opportunity to focus on agricultural issues at both the farm (micro) and regional (macro) landscape levels. Students study emerging technologies and bring the acquired knowledge back to FIU and South Florida.

“From the shamba’s [farm’s] highest point, the view was spectacular,” Brahim said in an online journal dispatch from Kenya. “But my initial feelings of wonder gave way to rising concerns as my eyes were drawn to the distant forest edge. The remnant Mau forest, the source of the Amala River, still looked thick from the distance, but 50 years ago it would have stretched as far the eye could see. In another 50 years it might disappear. Where trees were once dominant, tea has taken over.”

Tea thrives in the area that he visited and is Kenya’s most important agricultural product, so indigenous forests have suffered. One of the objectives of Brahim’s research is to create a system of ranking trees (indigenous and exotic) that would balance farmers’ preferences with ecological considerations.

Many students like Brahim have already benefited from the field trips, summer internships and training workshops offered through the two-year-old program.

The program got its start thanks to a $230,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Education Grant Program that provided seed money for training students in agroecology and for targeting students from underrepresented communities. Two more recent USDA grants – International Science and Education as well as Multicultural Scholars Program – totaling $220,000 will be used, in part, to support students’ agricultural internships abroad and fund freshman-to-senior studies for five lucky students.

As a result, in its young history the Agroecology Program has enabled FIU students to do on-farm field work locally (in the South Dade Redlands), nationally (in York County, Pa., among other areas) and internationally (including such far-off locales as India, Indonesia, El Salvador and Kenya). The program offers an undergraduate certificate in agroecology and supports graduate education.

“These grants are highly competitive,” said Krish Jayachandran, associate professor of environmental studies and the program’s co-director. “These grants allow us to provide research and career opportunities in agroecology to our students, as well as mentoring to high school students and teachers.”

Agroecology explained

But what, exactly, is agroecology?

Simply put, it is practicing agriculture in a way that is ecologically, economically, environmentally and sociologically friendly and will not negatively affect the ecosystem.

The goal of the agroecological system, Jayachandran explains, is to maximize profitability while preserving the environment.

Nasser considered this when he enrolled in the program halfway through his sophomore year.

“I wanted to understand why something that is so basic to human health and development – food – was so inequitably distributed across the globe,” he said. “[Plus], opportunities for paid international field work are not easy to find, especially for an undergraduate. This program provided me with a big leg up on the competition for graduate school and for future employment opportunities.”

Graduate student Cristina Clark-Cuadrado ‘05, 22, who was born in Spain and raised in Miami, has also taken advantage of the opportunities the program has to offer. She obtained full-funding support for her master’s degree in the Department of Environmental Studies under the HSI grant program.

“The program has provided me with an opportunity not available anywhere else in South Florida,” she said. “I wanted to concentrate on preventing pollution from agricultural areas and this program has allowed me to learn and discover new technologies and practices dedicated to this concern. It was through the program that last summer I accepted a great internship at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is part of the USDA, in York County, Pa., and where I want to work once I graduate.”

Mahadev Bhat, associate professor of environmental studies and economics and co-director of the Agroecology Program, said that the program’s international research component is a perfect fit for FIU’s diverse student body.

“The USDA is reaching out to Hispanic-serving institutions like FIU,” Bhat said. “Our community really is one of the best places in which to make this type of investment.”

For more information about the Agroecology Program, visit www.fiu.edu/~agroecol

—FIU—

— Martin Haro '05
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