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| Tilapia farming |
What’s the background?
The festive season is now behind us and many are now focused on Carnival! But behind the scenes many things that are important to the future of T&T in specialist niche areas continue to evolve. Here are a few examples of what has been happening over the past month.
Riverlime
Barbara Bridgewater Chandler, the entrepreneur who developed the ‘Riverlime’ environmental game and associated learning materials, recently provided us with an update of how her plans to take the products mainstream are progressing. She was able to secure some EU funding which enabled her to test the game and associated curriculum material she has developed in 50 schools throughout T&T. Both the teachers and students who participated in the group and learning sessions were enthusiastic about ‘Riverlime’. The world of education is changing rapidly. Unfortunately the way in which education is being delivered in many countries - including T&T - is not changing so rapidly and, as a result, a lot of young people are becoming ‘disengaged’. The test programme demonstrated the potential that innovative tools and learning processes have to engage young people, and those who teach them, in new, modern, and more relevant ways.
Tiliapia trial
Over the festive season we had the chance to catch up with one of the first people we met in T&T back in 2005 - Victor Lutchman - who, at that time, was supporting the development of entrepreneurial businesses at NEDCO. Victor is now an independent consultant and told us about a fascinating trial project he and an associate are currently involved with in association with the Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs. Tilapia has now become a top fresh water fish menu item in many parts of the world. The challenge for producers in many places, including T&T, is to be able to compete with cheap imports from China. The trial is testing an approach which is highly sustainable and needs little in the way of inputs as it is based upon a unique self-sustaining feeding system which is, essentially, ‘solar powered’. Management practices will be the key to its successful commercial utilisation as they are quite different to the traditional way Tilapia has been farmed. More details soon.
Fashion Cluster
On January 19th, the small informal fashion cluster group led by Jamilia Alexander met with some of the senior staff at e-TecK to present their plans for the future and to discuss ways in which e-Teck could provide some assistance, as the fashion sector is one which falls under their mandate. The presentation was well received. The next steps are now being formulated.
ALJ GSB Incubator
Over the past two months a great deal of progress has been made towards developing a proposal for setting up a world-class business incubator in association with the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business. The Executive Director of the School, Professor Miguel Carrillo, is optimistic that the project will happen in the very near future. A number of formal expressions of support for the proposed incubator financially, with resources, and from investors willing to look at investing in businesses developing in the incubator, have been received from both local and international sources. All that is required now is a formal decision to proceed - and this will happen by mid-February. Then the search will be on for possible candidates who have the ability to build world-class businesses and who wish to be considered for participation in the incubator.
What does this mean for T&T?
All of these developments over the past month are positive, constructive, and future-focused. They all aim to move T&T towards a more innovative and higher value creating future. They are all small steps - but a lot of small steps are needed to achieve significant change. Time to accentuate the positive!
Useful link:Riverlime
Key question: What other small important steps are happening in T&T that we can share with the TTFI network?
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