Agricultural colleges urged to value add

Elton Manguwo
Government is urging agricultural colleges in the country to embark on value addition of farm produce, a strategy to boost industrialisation in line with the Agricultural Food Systems Transformation Strategy (AFSTS).

In his keynote address at Chibero Agricultural College field day on Friday Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Dr John Basera said the colleges should exploit the opportunity to sell processed horticultural produce to maximise profits.

“Industrialisation should start at the college as development is now all about problem solving for value creation,” he said.

In 2021 the Ministry introduced the new Agricultural Education for Development 5,0 curriculum (AE4D 5.0) which pushes for innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Our thrust under this curriculum is that it is demanded of our agricultural colleges to not only teach and research but to also innovate, industrialise and transform the agricultural sector,” said Dr Basera.

The colleges are being urged to establish industrial and innovation hub that offers the opportunity to mould a graduate that ensures the farm profitability through value addition of horticultural produce.
“Value addition not only increases the profit but also the shelf life of food products and circumvents perishability,” said Dr Basera.

Under the AE4D 5.0 agricultural colleges must launch national development activities towards a competitive, modern and robust agricultural sector.

Therefore, the colleges are embracing private-public partnerships to mould technical and entrepreneurial graduates through partnerships with the Zimbabwe Agricultural Knowledge Information Systems (ZAKIS).

Strategic partnerships for development are key in unlocking both technical and financial resources to further capacitate agricultural institutions.

“We need more of these partnerships that we are witnessing today to further unlock resources for our colleges and research institutions,” said Dr Basera.
While the college was championing its specialisation in sustainable horticultural production, it is also servicing the surrounding farming communities through business advisory services.

“This is especially important to expand our thrust of taking farming as business at household level and this is key to ensure that we transit from largely subsistence farmers to commercially oriented enterprises,” said Dr Basera.
Government’s vision is the transformation of college farms into large-scale production entities run on the business and sustainable basis.

“To this end human capital development for the agricultural sector by colleges should be anchored on sustainable large-scale production on college farms to meet all the institution’s financial obligations and student’s food sustenance,” said Dr Basera.

The development comes at a time Government was positioning agriculture colleges to lead programmes in growing rural economies as the country aims for rural industrialisation steaming from agriculture development.

“The education system will produce graduates that are able to intervene at any part of the agricultural value chain transforming production, productivity and profitability,” said Dr Basera.