Sequence of EventsThe St Stanislaus College Farm was established in the early 1970s to provide practical training for Agriculture Science students of the St. Stanislaus College. The Farm was the brainchild of the then headmaster, Father Kenneth Khan and it was conceptualized in response to the call of the Government of Guyana to have Agriculture introduced into the curriculum of Secondary Schools.
The Farm was set up with the help of members of the St. Stanislaus College Association and with many hours of self-help work by former and then current students and parents who toiled diligently to establish what was a living laboratory to be used by the students of the College. It was officially opened by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Gavin Kennard on September 25th, 1975. The economic base of the Farm was built around a poultry unit which provided revenue from the sale of eggs and broilers; thereby helping to make the farm a financially sustainable entity.
By the end of the 1970s, the future of the Farm was in doubt. Father Khan
had been transferred and there was no foreign currency available for the
purchase of hatching eggs and feed ingredients. As a result the Farm was
unable to access baby chicks and revenue had eroded to the extent that the entity became unsustainable.
The Chairman of the Farm Committee Dr. Deep Ford, engaged the assistance of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the services of Dr. Hector Munoz, who was at the time a Livestock Specialist attached to IICA. A business plan was soon prepared to convert the Farm into a Dairy Farm using appropriate technology. Dr. Munoz supervised the establishment of pastures with a rotational grazing management system. He also used a solar unit to power the electric fences and installed a portable milking machine. With the financial assistance of Guyana Stores Ltd. a few cows were added to the two already at the farm and that signalled the beginning of the dairy model with an improved package of technologies, commonly referred to as the "St. Stanislaus Model" or the "Munoz Model”. The Model has been used to train / expose farmers as well as students from secondary schools, universities and agricultural training institutions. The Model has also been exposed to farmers, technicians and students from the Caribbean.
Father Kenneth Khan
Father Kenneth Khan became Principal of St Stanislaus College in July 1972 and it was during his first three years at the College that the idea of the Farm was nurtured and implemented.
It was during this period that the St. Stanislaus College Association under its then new President, Mr. Rafiq Khan, formed a Farm Sub-committee and a Workshop Sub-committee to examine ways of transforming the farmland into a productive unit and to look at the introduction of technical education at the Brickdam site.
Father Khan (1972-1980) was the last of a long line of prestigious Jesuit Priests to be Principal of SSC. At the same time Father Khan had the distinction of being the first Guyanese principal of the institution. Fr. Khan is one of several who put in manual labour to get the Farm going.
Mr. Joseph Christopher Fernandes
Mr. Joseph Christopher Fernandes, A.A is the Chairman of the St. Stanislaus College Association Farm Management Committee which is responsible for the administration of the Farm.
In 1978, Chris was elected as a member of the executive of the St. Stanislaus College Association.
Dr. John Ronald Deep Ford
Dr. John Ronald Deep Ford served on the St. Stanislaus College Old Boys Committee in the early 1980s and was the Chairman of the SSCF Sub-Committee. He was instrumental in linking the potential of the SSCF to the newer, Latin American technologies that IICA was willing to transfer.
Dr. Hector Munoz Coronado
Dr. Hector Munoz Coronado is a Mexican by birth but calls Costa Rica home as a result of his beautiful wife Ana Isabel and their children and grandchildren. After a BSc. in Animal Science from Coahuila University, Mexico (1958), Dr. Munoz travelled to Costa Rica where he obtained an MSc. in Animal Science from Turruilba.
Mr. Terry Solomon
Mr. Terrence Solomon has been a long-standing Member of the St. Stanislaus College Association Farm Management Committee, having served since the 1980s. He assumed the position of Treasurer as from 1992.