His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh speaks to (from left to right) Dr Natasha Grist and Hileena Chloe – photo credited to Dr Johanna Forster, UEA * Poul Hoveson, Deputy President of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association (and Director of Farming, Holkham Estate) with Hileena Chole. Poul formally announced Hileena’s scholarship at a ceremony at the Royal Norfolk Show on Wednesday 27 June.
A new scholarship to help local farmers manage the challenges of climate change was announced at the Royal Norfolk Show last week (on Wednesday 26 June) – as part of a partnership between The Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association (RNAA) and the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD).
The Norfolk International Scholarship, generously supported by the JC Mann Charitable Trust, provides funding for a scholar to undertake overseas research that will benefit farmers and growers in Norfolk. The scholarship has been awarded in this first year pilot phase to research student Hileena Chole. This will enable Hileena to travel overseas and look at best practice when examining the issue of water management in agriculture as part of her Master of the Arts (MA) in Agriculture and Rural Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Hileena attended a special reception at the Royal Norfolk Show (on Thursday 27 June) where she met His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. She said: “It was such an honour to meet The Duke of Edinburgh and we spoke for a few minutes. He was very interested to hear about the scholarship and we also spoke about the agricultural issues in Ethiopia, where I’m from. I’m excited to be first recipient of this new scholarship and it is great to be working on something that’s so interesting and of practical value to local farmers.”
The scholarship is set up to respond to urgent current issues that Norfolk farmers face and this year will look at water. Tim Papworth, irrigation practitioner, contract farmer and Chairman of the Norfolk branch of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “We need to understand how to get water in the right places at the right times. There are urgent issues in Norfolk around drought, and flooding, both of which lead to crop loss. With better planning and infrastructure, water can be stored from rainfall events for later use. We hope to use this first pilot scholar support to investigate how this is done cooperatively in other parts of Europe and bring the best of that learning back to Norfolk.”
Mark Nicholas MBE DL, Managing Director of The Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association, commented: “We’re delighted to have set up this new annual scholarship in partnership with the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, and with the generous support of the JC Mann Charitable Trust. With a changing climate, it’s vital that we support the next generation of leaders in agriculture to find solutions to the challenges that we face, such as water management.”
Professor Nitya Rao, Director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, said: “This scholarship marks our commitment to working across geographical and subject boundaries to look at how we can help famers to address practical problems. Our experts from the UEA and the internationally-renowned Norwich Research Park work closely with famers and rural communities and help support food security and sustainability.”