Inakwu’s legacy lives on for farming fraternity
OBSERVATION of Australian farming systems has given a group of visiting African professionals inspiration to modernise traditional agricultural practices in their respective homelands.
The group of 11 senior university researchers from Kenya and Tanzania spent three days in the Central West as part of the East African Australia Awards Fellowship hosted by the University of Sydney’s Institute of Agriculture and funded through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
University of Sydney Associate Professor Daniel Tan helped to facilitate the program and said the fellowship is about revolutionising traditional African farming methods.
“Focused on agronomy and crop production, the visit is providing training for the group who are upgrading their skills,” Prof Tan said.
“They are investigating the utilisation of traditional and modern technologies for farm system modelling to optimise crop and pasture yields and sustainability, and will consider how best to work with their farming stakeholders.
“The climate here is very similar to Africa and they wanted to find out how we achieve that in Australian conditions.”
The visit took in working farms in Warren, Narromine, Dubbo and Orange, observing practice in dairy farming, plant breeding and seed production, a Merino sheep stud, a winery and commercial cotton farm and gin.
“They have been introduced to the latest research and practices in using remote sensing and geospatial analysis and applying