AgForestry graduate highlights India trip

Hannah Street
Communications

AgForestry Class 38 poses in front of the Taj Mahal on January 14, 2017.

After many hours of plane travel, WSDA Dairy Nutrient Management Program’s Chery Sullivan and her AgForestry Leadership Program peers arrived in Delhi. Twenty-two members of Class 38 traveled to India, one of the last locations in a long line of seminars.

The 18-month program, intended to develop leaders in the agriculture, forestry and fishery industries, included 13 seminar sessions, mostly in Washington state, but also in Washington, D.C. with final training in India and Nepal.

Before traveling overseas, AgForestry class 38 volunteered at a Tacoma homeless shelter to learn about the impact of agriculture on different kinds of living environments. They learned about forestry in Longview, working with the media in Spokane, and irrigation in Moses Lake. In Walla Walla, the class met prisoners at the Washington State Penitentiary.

On the trip to Washington D.C., the class was surprised by the normalcy of meeting with officials and senators. “One common observation we made was how surprising it was to us that senators and legislators are just regular people with a job to do,” Chery said.

A spice market in Old Delhi. 

World travelers

After arriving in Delhi, the group was up early the next morning, seeking transport in rickshaws. “It truly felt like Disneyland,” Chery sad. “It did not feel real.”

Heading to their first Indian destination in rickshaws, Chery said she relished the new experience. As unreal as the sights and sounds felt to these travelers, the experience was just as unusual for Indians.

“We were kind of the sight to be seen in many places,” she said.

As the group navigated public spaces to reach their seminar destinations, acclimating to social norms proved interesting. For example, the dress code for women on the trip was “all-covering and modest,” and Chery said she and the other women were often instructed to wear additional coverings when they visited mosques and monuments.

Air quality was another adjustment. Pollution was such a problem, Chery’s peers were often pictured with face masks. She described the layer of murky discoloration that seemed to plague every surface.

Much to see and learn

The "Amar Singh Gate" of the Red Fort of Agra. Boiling Mustard oil could be poured on
invaders from the pots abovethis drawbridge. 

“Yes it was crowded, yes it was noisy, yes it was polluted, but our hosts were incredibly gracious and so happy to have us,” Chery said. At Punjab Agricultural University, school officials greeted the AgForestry class in suits, and their visit was reported in the newspaper.

Chery marveled at how close she and her classmates got to famous monuments, such as the Taj Mahal. Built to honor and house the tomb of an emperor’s third wife after her passing, the white marble structure is inlaid with precious stones. At the Red Fort of Agra, the main residence of emperors during the Mughal Dynasty, Chery described intricate details carved into stone and statuesque palaces and mosques. “The access was phenomenal. We could touch the walls and feel the age, the design and the craftsmanship,” she said.

Chery’s area of expertise, dairy nutrient management, looked very different in this part of the world from what she sees here.

AgForestry Class member Curtis Roy feeds a prized Indian Gir cow at the National
Dairy Research Institute in Ludhiana, India. Jensena Newhouse looks on from behind.

Dried cow pats are used as fuel. And unlike the large reservoirs of dairy nutrient waste in the states, herds in India are spread out enough that they don’t have the same management issues we do, Chery said.

Indian dairy production and herds are also very different. The water buffalo and Brahman cows native to India are important to the quality and quantity of Indian dairy. And at the National Dairy Institute, Chery and the group learned that India is attempting to develop Coca-Cola-flavored milk with the goal of marketing to more families with young children.

On to Nepal

Next the class went to Nepal, where tourism is an important part of the economy, Chery said. Small grocery stores dotted the streets, and hand-crafted wares were sold by the cartload.

The Monkey Temple is a holy site for Buddhists and Hindus of Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nepal is still recovering from a massive 2015 earthquake; infrastructure is developing and improving, and several countries, including the United State, have sponsored building repairs.

In Chery’s experience, the AgForestry Leadership Program was educational and an excellent professional opportunity. She graduated with a better understanding of her leadership style, more knowledge of national and international agriculture industry issues, and skills she can bring back to her department.

Women of AgForestry Class 38 at an Indian Mosque. (From left to right: Chery
Sullivan, Sonja Jensen, Emily Bautista-Herdt, Tammie Perrealt, Kali Clark,
Hilary Aten, Hannah Poush, Erin Kloes (the trip's designated "responsible adult"),
and Jensena Newhouse. 

For more information about the program, see AgForestry’s website and a previous WSDA Insider blog post.

Photos courtesy of Chery Sullivan and Jordan McDevitt.

















In summary: WSDA's Chery Sullivan details the delights and insights of her AgForestry Class 38's trip to India and Nepal.