A 10-day training workshop was held at Tennessee State University in December 2022 for two National Training Service (SENA) employees from Colombia who were visiting Nashville, Tennessee, for the project “Trans-boundary Research & Extension of Black-Eyed Peas for Food and Nutritional Security in the Diets of Afro-Colombians and African Americans.”
The tailored workshop was attended by two Agronomists/Ingeniero Agronomos, namely Ing. Hector Fabio Espinoza Tillmans and Ing. Ludwig Mauricio Rojas Delgado, both from AGroSENA in Buga, Colombia, who have been partners for the two-way exchange of students and faculty from the 1890 land-grant universities.
Training sessions encompassed the following topics: advanced GIS concepts (Dr. Reginald Archer); remote sensing and updated drone technology (Dr. Clement Akumu); food safety during processing (Dr. Aliyar Foulkhadar); history of Tennessee State as an HBCU and the potential for training SENA students or instructors at Tennessee State (Mr. Mark Brinkley); honors college methods and concepts (Dr. Coreen Jackson); and English as a Second Language training potential (Sr. Vladimir Betancur Bedoya).
Virtual meetings with the other 1890 universities’ partners including Dr. Noel Estwick from Prairie View Texas A&M, who gave the original GIS workshop in Colombia, and Dr. Pamela Moore from the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. Christmas gifts from Prairie View Texas A&M were warmly received, and the SENA team left with swag in the University’s purple and gold as well as TSU’s tiger blue and white. Administrators Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel, interim vice dean for research; Dr. Sam Nahashon, department head; and Dr. Chandra Reddy, dean, met with the visitors to discuss paths of collaboration and how the SENA model would be useful for extension in the United States.
Nahashon along with his post-doc, Dr. Thyniece Taylor, and student Morgan Roberts gave the poultry program tour to the visitors, which was instructional as the region near AgroSENA continues to lead in fresh egg production.
Beyond the in-class activities of the mini-workshops and meetings, participants visited with growers of legumes in Carthage, Tennessee (Caney Fork Farm). Tractors and agricultural mechanization were a theme as Ing. Rojas Delgado is an expert in this area and has advised Joshua Relyea, a TSU master’s student, on types of planters to use for row crops. While Ing. Espinoza Tilmans is an expert in irrigation, it was not discussed with farm staff given the time of year. A short training by laboratory staff Dr. Hui Li, a post-doc student, in mineral analysis and exchanges on alternative crops with master’s student Lahari Nekkalapudi were also part of the visit.
Another result of the meeting apart from excellent coordination, good will and valuable knowledge exchange were:
- Plans for joint additional projects.
- Review of the cowpea recipe book with the principal author, another graduate of the project, Dr. Tatiana Zabaleta. (A lunch meeting was held with her and Ing. Espinoza and Ing. Rojas, who also sampled local preparation of hopping John, a cowpea dish served with collard greens and corn bread typically around the end of the year.)
- An edited memorandum of understanding draft to present to SENA authorities in the new government of Colombia to be signed with TSU.
