March 24, 2015
Agriculture students have the opportunity to visit the northern Philippines in July to learn from local farmers as part of a study tour aimed at supporting up-and-coming growers and agronomists.
Second year – or above – students studying an agriculture-focussed degree can apply under Syngenta’s Connections program.
Launched in 2010, Syngenta Connections facilitates direct exchange programs which expose participants to different agricultural systems, crops, research and academic systems.
“Past student participants have found the tours to be a rich cultural and agricultural experience, beneficial to their studies and possible future career direction,” Syngenta Australasia spokesman Paul Luxton said.
“The program has been successful in linking together organisations and institutions to provide experience and expertise to farmers and researchers through agronomy services, skills and knowledge exchange.”
The 15 successful applicants will have face-to-face interactions with small landholder farmers and agriculture students.
The 2014 Connections trip was to Hebei Province in China where 11 students from six universities across Australia spent time with local farmers, providing training to vegetable farmers in safe chemical handling.
In 2013 the group worked with a farmer community to build a water pump system for farmers groups and in 2011 two rural kindergartens were refurbished by the Connections group in India and Indonesia respectively.
As part of the 2015 Connections program, the students will be exposed to the latest technology in rice research and field testing at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the province of Laguna, south of Manila.
Students wishing to apply should email to find out more about the selection criteria and application process.
As a condition of the study tour, each successful applicant will be asked to contribute $2000 towards the cost of the trip.
Applications close on March 31 and an interview process will follow for selected candidates. Successful applicants will be notified in May.
