awards
SABI Awards Top students from
schools irrigation course:
Growing
essential skills
for the future
I
n announcing the top achieving students on SABI’s
Schools’ Irrigation Course – Matthys Mouton from
Augsburg Landbou Gimnasium, Lian van Wyk
from Boland Agricultural School and Franco van
der Mescht from Oakdale Agricultural School –
SABI technical executive officer Isobel van der Stoep
said growing skills from schools level in water use
efficiency is vital in South Africa.
While the country is suffering a water crises, wider growth and
awareness of technical and agricultural skills in irrigation and
water use will help to ensure water is used optimally in the future.
The overall leading student for the year was Matthys Mouton, who
took home the top accolade, with winning trophies sponsored
by Lindsay and Wilo pumps. The winners received the accolades
at an event in Somerset West in February. Smiling parents and
cheerful youths were the order of the day.
Said van der Stoep: “We would like to congratulate our top
students, who excelled on the course. Knowledge of optimal
irrigation and water saving technologies is not only a good
course for agricultural students, however. We need to build
technical skills in our country, irrigation, for one, already faces
a very serious skills shortage. We hope more students in high
school will look at irrigation as a career option.
Water saving awareness
“In our view, all students – not just agricultural school learners
- should be made aware of water saving and the technologies
that achieve optimal water use,” she said. “As SABI we are intent
on encouraging a technical learning culture on our mission to
encourage optimal water use and water conservation,” said van
der Stoep.
The students had completed the SABI Irrigation Course last year,
which was attended by a total of 113 learners from Oakdale
Lian van Wyk and Matthys Mouton
Agricultural School, Riversdale; Boland Agricultural School, Paarl
and Augsburg Landbougimnasium, Clanwilliam.
The schools programme includes basic foundations on various
irrigation technologies as well as irrigation scheduling and system
evaluation topics. While SABI self-funded the schools initiative
from 2011, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture has
assisted with the funding from 2014. The prices for the top
learners were sponsored by industry partners, Lindsay and Wilo
pumps.
Constructive
André Roux, director: sustainable resource management for the
Western Cape’s Agricultural department, speaking at the event,
complimented the learners on their achievements, and said the
Western Cape was proud to be associated with the Award. It is a
constructive way of growing the skills and mindsets that will one
day hopefully grow in the irrigation sector, faced by challenges of
climate change and water scarcity in our semi-arid country.
The smart use of irrigation technologies is now more vital than
ever before, and into the future, said Roux. He shared interesting
knowledge on the Western Cape’s FruitLook the revolutionary
online tool for farmers hoping to achieve greater water use
efficiency. (www.fruitlook.co.za)
“SABI is an important Institute as SABI helps to ensure that
technical people are trained in irrigation and the technologies
thereof. That is why we sponsored the initiative as it encourages
the generation of the future to explore irrigation as a career from
school level, which is vital.”
“We hope the SABI schools course can boost awareness in
irrigation and we aim to create interest amongst the future
employees to explore irrigation as a career. We are looking at
expanding the course in the Western Cape and also to the other
provinces,” commented van der Stoep.
Vernon Muller and overall winner Matthys
Mouton
Annemarie van der Westhuizen, Tony Ewels,
Sonja Hattingh and André Roux
SABI | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016
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