Fellows visit SCSI HQ and horticultural campus of AUI
Recently the UNU-LRT fellows visited Gunnarsholt, the headquarters of the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI) in South Iceland. The Director of SCSI, Mr Sveinn Runolfsson, welcomed the group and presented each fellow with the book Healing the land by Roger Croft, which tells the story of land reclamation and soil conservation in Iceland. Ms Anne Bau, biologist at SCSI, showed the fellows around Gunnarsholt and the facilities there. The fellows will live in Gunnarsholt for two months in the summer or from mid-June to mid-August while they work on their individual research projects.
On the way back from Gunnarsholt the team visited the horticultural campus of the Agricultural University (AUI) at Reykir. There the fellows were introduced to the activities of the campus by Ms Gudridur Helgadottir, the Head of the Department of Vocational Training and Continuing Education. Ms Helgadottir also showed the fellows around the geothermal area around Reykir, and how the heat from the ground in the area is used to heat the greenhouses of the campus which e.g. prides itself of being the only place in Iceland where bananas are grown.
The photo shows the fellows with UNU-LRT Director and SCSI Director.