After getting an overview of the controls and functions of a John Deere tractor, the students each took a turn in an open field behind the wheel, shifting gears and experimenting with the levers to maneuver the bucket and hitch.

“Learning to drive the tractor was really exciting and pretty straightforward, but there were more functions than I initially thought,” said agriculture major Joseph Pabunan.

He said one of the main reasons he became an agriculture major was to have a closer association with the foods he eats.

“I think the most valuable thing I learned this semester is that you can produce food and vegetables at any scale; you just have to find a way to make the most efficient use of your space," he said. "As my education progresses, I would like to take a deeper dive into local food production and find ways to grow what we usually don’t see here on Guam to give the locals the opportunity to try something new."

The training was arranged because of the students’ interest during a field trip to Triton Farm earlier in the semester, Bevacqua said. So he worked with the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center under the College of Natural & Applied Sciences, which oversees Triton Farm on the Yigo agricultural experiment station, to make it happen.

The training was facilitated by WPTRC staff members Frankie Matanane, agricultural research technician; Gil Cruz, agricultural technician supervisor; and Jessica Nangauta, Triton Farm manager.

“The participants were wildly enthusiastic about learning to drive a tractor,” Bevacqua said, adding that he hopes it will become an annual part of the AL-101 class.