It gives us great pleasure to announce that Prof Tarak Kate, convenor of the Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture course at the Sustainability Institute and Extra-Ordinary Professor in the School of Public Management and Planning, has been invited to participate as a speaker at the “Revisiting Food Security” conference in New Delhi. The conference, organized by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and the National Alliance on Sustainable Agriculture in India, will be held in the third week of September 2010. Other renowned leaders in the field, such as Prof. Amartya Sen and Miguel Altieri, will also share their views. Prof Tarak Kate has a Phd in Botany, and for the last 22 years has specialised in appropriate technology, organic recycling, sustainable agriculture, renewable enrgy, and waste utilization. His main work is helping small farmers in India with holdings of less than two acres to maximize returns from their land.

It is hard to believe that it is already time to call for applications for our 2011 intake. This will be the 9th intake into our Masters Programme. This week the MPhil students started to submit the first completed drafts of their theses to their supervisors thus starting the long process of feedback, revision, then evaluation by internal and external examiners starting in November, followed by more revision and then resubmission, leading eventually to graduation in March 2011. Those currently completing their BPhil degrees will be submitting their research proposals in November as part of their application for entry into the MPhil degree in 2011. During October and November all the applications for entry into the BPhil degree in 2011 will be evaluated and some will be interviewed. Unfortunately, not all can be accepted because the number of applicants will exceed the number of places available on the programme. The early applicants will be given preference. All those accepted will be expected to arrive for registration on 25 January 2011 which is the first day of the Orientation/Induction Week. Click here for the 2011 Prospectus and go to the Course Administration folder in the News & Documents drop-down menu for the application documents.

The garden is now in the cusp of autumn and winter. All crops have been taken off and beds are being cleaned of weeds and prepared for Spring planting. Seedling trays have been sown in the Nursery for later planting out. For the first time we have sown "green manure" in beds that are "resting", with a combination of oats and lupins. That will give a great display of colour in Spring but more importantly replenish the beds with nitrogen. The rains have arrived and the dams we dug out in the wetland last year are filling again. Most beautifully, the waterblommetjies have reappeared from muddy depths. The new Woodland awaits the Spring for fresh growth and an outburst of indigenous bulbs planted in recent months.

The following winter photos were taken by Bryce Anderson (Waterblommetjie) and Luke Metelerkamp (gardens).