Shamva Agriculture College churns out 28 new graduates
Story by Tapiwa Machemedze
AGRICULTURAL colleges have been cited as key in the acceleration of the transformation of the country’s agrarian sector.
28 Shamva Agricultural College graduates have expressed their readiness to use the knowledge they acquired during their training to enhance the country’s agricultural sector.
The graduates were speaking at the college’s 11th graduation ceremony.
“I’m the overall best student here at Shamva Agricultural College I am happy that I’m now going to work for personal and national development,” said one of the graduates.
Another added, “I’m really happy. I graduated with a Diploma in Agriculture after completing my three-year course, and now I’m focusing on the development of my country.’
“With the knowledge I got here, I will start projects. I’m going to venture into crop production, especially of tobacco as well as poultry and piggery,” said another graduate.
The government is very optimistic the new graduates will boost the productivity levels of farmers who benefitted from the land reform programme.
The Deputy Minister for Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Honourable Davis Marapira said, “Perhaps over 90 percent of these farm beneficiaries are non-agriculturalists. Agriculture colleges such as Shamva come in handy to impart institutional knowledge and skills to the farm beneficiaries for them to fully utilise their land to achieve enhanced productivity. More practitioners should translate to increased production and productivity.”
Under the Agriculture Education 5.0 curriculum graduates are also expected to create employment through entrepreneurship.
“Today’s graduates – you are not supposed to be part of the country’s employees because of the course you have taken. It’s been a year since the government transformed Agriculture Education 2.0 whose outputs were trainers and extensions to the Agriculture Extension for Development 5.0 curriculum. One of the milestones in agriculture and food systems transformation strategy,” said Shamva Agriculture College principal, Mr. Johnson Mashandu.
Under the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Policy, agriculture is expected to become a US$20 billion industry by 2030 surpassing the mining sector.