SIAH students satisfied with work-based experience on Desroches |05 March 2022

The four students from the Seychelles Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture (SIAH) who were on Desroches Island to gain firsthand experience working in agriculture on an outer island, said that they are extremely happy with the experience and knowledge gained.

Kelvyn Gonzalves, Dylan Lusta, Alvin Pauline and Azarius Adrienne made the comments upon their return to Mahé on Thursday evening following a month-long work-based experience in farming, livestock and community life on the island.

Their attachment training programme was organised by the Islands Development Company (IDC) in collaboration with SIAH.

The aim of the programme is to expose our young farmers to agriculture on the outer islands in a bid to encourage them to continue to work in the sector on the outer islands, or elsewhere, after leaving the institution.

The four students said that learning at school and on the island is different as the extent of farming and livestock on the island offers them with a wider range of opportunities to gather more knowledge and experience.

They noted that apart from being engaged in farming and livestock, they had a memorable time with the inhabitants from whom they learned how to survive and to make savings.

Kelvyn, Dylan, Alvin and Azarius recommended that other young farmers get the chance to gather the experience as a source of motivation to stay in the sector. They also vowed to stay in the sector and will be ready to work on an outer island if they are offered the chance.

Justin Moustache, the agricultural project manager of IDC, who supervised the four students on their working and community life experiences, said that the company is very satisfied with their performance and attitude.

He said from assessing the skills they gained from the institute, the students lack practical know-how and more effort was put to improve the level of skills.

He said that the four students, who were mostly familiar with crop farming, were easy to work with and they were tireless.

He added that their involvement in community life which included sports and other social gatherings, went really well.

Mr Moustache noted though that it is not the first time that IDC conducts such work-based experience for students on outer islands as they have catered for such programme before, on Coetivy, with larger groups of students.

He said that IDC’s farming and livestock facilities on the outer islands offer good training grounds for students and the company will continue to work with the institute for other groups of students, including female participants, to engage in such work-based experience programme as the company wants to encourage more Seychellois, especially the youths, to work on the outer islands.

The accompanying photos show the students in action during their attachment on Desroches (photos contributed) and on their return to Mahé (photo by Patrick Joubert).

Patrick Joubert