By Robert Andre Emmanuel
United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate George Wehner said that he wants to establish an agricultural studies campus in Pares, as he referred to the community a potential hub for agricultural education and development.
Speaking at a political rally in Pares Village onTuesday night, Wehner said that he wants to work with the University of the West Indies (UWI) to allow students pursuing higher degrees in Agriculture to be able to have easier access to the program.
“Any of our students who desire to pursue studies in agriculture at UWI, they have to go down to St Augustine [right now],” Wehner said. “I would advocate for a UPP administration to have a Pares campus… in agricultural studies and in honor of the great man Sir Robert Hall.”
The proposed campus would be integrated with existing agricultural facilities in the area. “We have CARDI, we have Diamond’s Estate,” Wehner explained.
Wehner’s remarks come as he seeks to defeat the Antigua Barbuda Labour (Party ABLP) candidate, Rawdon Turner, in the St Peter by-election next week.
Wehner also highlighted the economic potential of the development: “Can you imagine the spin-off with a Pares campus — for faculty, for students, for housing, for all other businesses that will pop up, and all the money circulating within the economy?”
The UPP candidate coupled his education proposal with plans for sustainable development, including a solar energy project at Potworks Dam.
“I will advocate for the Potworks area, approximately 262 acres … for us to have solar panels above the water level raised as a covering, so we have two things – we will have water security; we will have green energy,” he said.
Wehner criticized what he described as decades of neglect in agricultural development under previous administrations.
“Fifty years ago … we were self-sufficient in this community, in this constituency, in poultry and pork production … we did it before [and] we can do it again.”
Last year, the current administration announced plans to transform the former Bethesda Primary School compound into an agricultural campus.
Minister of Education Daryll Matthew has since confirmed that talks are still ongoing regarding transforming one of the oldest schools in the country into a vocational school which will be part of the Antigua Barbuda Institute of Continuing Education (ABICE) programme.
