Olds College has helped on a greenhouse project in Kazakhstan in which it hired a graduate student to train local citizens to grow vegetables in soiless media.
Project manager Donna Gole said the college hired a graduate student trained in vegetable production as part of a Canadian International Development Agency program to help design and build a greenhouse at Korkyt Ata State University.
The Olds part of the project focused on growing cucumbers in bags of rice hulls and sawdust. Gole said Korkyt Ata saw the project as a major training focus and invested $74,000 US above the CIDA contribution.
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Gole said vegetables would prosper in the area, which has a growing season similar to the Prairies. However, arid conditions and poor soil, exacerbated by overuse of fertilizer during the Soviet era, and land and water pollution make it difficult to grow vegetables in the ground.
Being able to grow year round, not having to plant in the soil and using readily available materials are major benefits of the greenhouse, she said.
The first cucumber crop yielded more than four tonnes in three months.
“Actually, their first crop of cucumbers was so productive they were able sell them locally, for a minimal rate, but they had extremely good yields,” she said.
Bigger project
The greenhouse construction brings to an end a four-year CIDA funded project that paired Olds College with personnel from three universities and two vocational schools in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Olds instructors worked with local instructors, students and producers to develop training and curriculum development skills, followed by needs assessment training.
“The first activities were to do with developing teaching and educational skills,” Gole said.
“Then there was an infusion of capital. At that point each one of the schools we were working with developed a pretty strong idea of how they wanted to develop something new, kind of like a pilot project. They all chose something different.”
Capital funding came from CIDA and the participating schools. One university developed two rural extension centres. Two rural vocational schools bought farm equipment to teach local farmers and students new farming techniques. Another bought computers to help it communicate with other universities. A university in Kyrgyz Republic used its money to develop meat processing training manuals.
“It was a very broad project,” said Gole.
“It seemed in the end the project came out better than any of us expected.”
