This text is part of the special section Higher Education
A pioneer in urban agriculture, Montreal needs a skilled workforce to continue to grow this green sector. At the heart of a neighborhood very committed to this path, Collège Ahuntsic will open a new DEC in two years to train around fiftyof students in all aspects useful for working in urban agriculture, from production to technical engineering.
“Montreal is a world capital of urban agriculture, a pioneer in terms of the number of businesses and square feet of green roofs for vegetable production in the city,” says Chantal Racine, Assistant Director of Studies, Programs and Teaching. at Collège Ahuntsic. To provide more manpower to these innovative businesses, the Ministry of Higher Education has authorized the latter to open a new college program in agricultural business management and technology — Urban Agriculture profile . The twenty students of the first cohort could be welcomed from 2024.
A complete program
The new DEC will train students in three years. They will learn all the technical realities of urban agriculture by focusing on three aspects, starting with the design and operation of production systems, harvesting, and vegetable and animal processing in an urban context. “This notion is broader than in a classic agriculture DEC, because animal production includes food worms or insects that can be eaten in flour, but also fish in ponds or honey produced by bees”, details Chantal Racine.
As for plant production, it covers in particular microgreens and aquaponics or hydroponics. Add to that the cultivation of mushrooms and the transformation of waste to turn the virtuous loop of the circular economy.
Students will follow management courses adapted to urban specificities. “Agricultural degrees are very focused on managing a fleet of equipment or human resources. Our DEC will train more in project management,” says Chantal Racine. Students will also benefit from training in technical engineering which will include electronics (automation and control, process regulation) and industrial engineering (optimization of inputs, reduction of waste), not to mention building mechanics and civil engineering. (vertical greenhouses, environmental chambers, small outdoor grounds, etc.).
“Our students will complete their expertise with roof infrastructure: how to install crops on existing structures that were not designed for this, for example. They will also study aspects of environmental regulation: humidity, luminosity, temperature”, describes the deputy director.
Fertile Partners
Collège Ahuntsic didn’t have to go far to find the best partner companies. “We are supported by the Centrale agricole, which is particularly well versed in the cultivation of insects with the company TriCycle, whose co-founder sits on our board of directors,” says Chantal Racine. Lufa Farms and the vertical strawberry greenhouses Ferme d’hiver are also among the companies that responded. Other collaborations are set up in academia (University of Montreal, University of Quebec in Montreal, ETS, McGill), municipal and citizen (City of Montreal, Friends of Boisé de Saint-Sulpice, steering committee for the development of the Louvain-Est site).
The college’s facilities (green roof, hives, vegetable garden) and its links with the work and natural environments will allow students to put down their pens to go put their thumbs in the ground or handle insects.
“We want to offer observation or advanced training,” says Chantal Racine. Its objective is also to set up joint research projects and think tanks to solve concrete business problems: “Let’s imagine for example that one of them does not manage to have an environmental room humid enough for its mushrooms. Our students could look into this misting problem, with the expertise of our teachers. »
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