JULY 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


UFV ag curriculum continues to diversify Hops and


cannabis courses in development


by DAVID SCHMIDT CHILLIWACK – The emphasis is


on hands-on learning at the University of the Fraser Valley agriculture department. Whether the topic is poultry production, livestock production, greenhouse growing or even pollination, UFV students don’t just learn about it in books but by actually participating – raising the birds, milking the cows, growing the crops and planting bee-friendly plants.


And the program is catching on. “We had 130 full and part-time students in 2017-18,” department assistant Shelley Hayes said during a UFV Agriculture Centre of Excellence open house and info session in late May. UFV offers a four-year Bachelor


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she says, noting UFV already has over 75 applications for the 2018- 2019 diploma program. Students in the animal


program look after the animals before, during and after school. “We do as much hands-on as


possible,” says associate professor Paul Gumprich. For example, turkeys are raised from two-day old poults to 20-pound turkeys for Christmas; sows are farrowed in early fall and the resulting piglets raised to market hogs. And they are even trying some unique approaches, such as raising black soldier flies as protein for poultry, fish and even hogs. In horticulture, students learn about pests and pest control and try their hand at growing papayas and crops for ethnic markets in UFV’s state-of-the-art greenhouses.


And UFV is expanding its


program to meet future needs. “With the growth of the hop


UFV assistant professor of agriculture Renee Prasad describes some of the projects she and her students are working on during an Agriculture Centre of Excellence open house. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


of Agricultural Science in horticulture as well as two-year livestock and horticulture diploma programs and one-year production certificates. Although most of the students are Canadian,


there is an increasing number of international students. “Most of our international students come from


India but we’ve also had students from Brazil, Cameroon, China, Russia and New Zealand,” Hayes


says. Domestic students can start with a certificate


program and move on to a diploma program or to the horticultural degree but international students are only accepted in the diploma or degree program. In the past, many students took only a course or


two as they decided on their future, but that is changing. “We don’t have as many samplers as we used to,”


industry in the Fraser Valley, we are developing a course in hop production,” says UFV associate dean of applied and technical


studies Rolf Arnold. They are also developing a course in cannabis


production but that does not mean UFV will be going to pot. “The course will take place at a Fraser Valley


greenhouse that is growing cannabis so we won’t have any cannabis at the university itself,” explains UFV associate professor Tom Baumann.


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