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06 November 2023
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Story MBALI MABOEA
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Photo SUPPLIED
The Department of Geography on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus recently played host to the Society of South African Geographers Conference (SSAG 2023), which gathered more than 100 students over three days.
Fostering academic growth, collaboration, and inspiration among students and researchers in the field of geography, the Department of Geography on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus recently played host to the Society of South African Geographers Conference (SSAG 2023), which gathered more than 100 students over three days.
Following a five-year hiatus, the three-day conference comprised student proposal presentations in different fields: human geography, environment geography, geoinformatics, and physical geography, divided into breakaway sessions over two days. Furthermore, day three of the annual conference included an excursion to the Basotho Cultural Village and Clarens.
The three-day annual student conference focused on different themes presented by two main speakers. The topic of the first keynote speaker, Dr Mahlomola Daemane, General Manager of the SANParks Arid Research Unit, focused on the contemporary conservation, transition, and relevance of science in policy and decision making.
The second keynote speaker was Dr Felicia Akinyemi, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow affiliated with the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Her work focuses on the intersection of geoinformatics, global change, and sustainability. Dr Akinyemi focused her talk on the integrative geospatial methods and metrics for sustainable land use. She introduced different techniques and metrics and gave students insight in early-career African research.
Speaking about the success of the conference, Nthebohiseng Sekhele, Geography Lecturer on the Qwaqwa Campus and chair of the organising committee, said, “The local organising committee was also very impressed with the quality of presentations from our postgraduate students in Geography, as well as the robust discussions that happened during the parallel sessions in the two days of the conference. We had a positive response of physical and online participation from many universities across South Africa. We are pleased that we have achieved our goal with this conference, which is to inspire the next generation of geographers.”
Training session held for IDC Nguni Cattle Development Project
2009-09-11
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A training session was recently held at Glen Agricultural Institute for staff of the Free State Department of Agriculture involved in the Free State Industrial Development Corporation’s (IDC) Nguni Cattle Development Project. The training session, presented by Prof. HO de Waal and Dr Luis Schwalbach from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Science, was attended by 37 extension staff who was briefed on the background of the project and trained in the specific procedures to identify and nominate prospective beneficiary black farmers to take part in the project. The IDC Nguni Cattle Development Project was originally started in the Northern Cape where more than 30 beneficiary farmers are already farming with registered Nguni cattle under the guidance of the project. The project was recently implemented in the Free State Province. These two projects are using the Nguni cattle breed to spearhead rural development in these two provinces, covering a large part of South Africa. Attending the training session were, from the left, front: Dr Schwalbach, Ms KP Lephoro, Department of Agriculture in Fouriesburg; middle: Mr Benson Motsuemyane, Department of Agriculture in Boshoff, Prof. De Waal; back: Mr Nkosana Nhlapo, Department of Agriculture in Trompsburg and Mr Thsepo Teele, Department of Agriculture in Parys.
Photo: Stephen Collett |