dyton mupawaenda
Arts Correspondent
Renowned art critic, visual artist, lecturer and writer, cum public health professional and agro-veterinary epidemiologist, Dr Tony Monda, was honoured recently by a group of pharmaceutical companies and pharmacologists in Geneva, Switzerland, for his work in public health awareness, animal health and public veterinary medicine in Zimbabwe especially his published contributions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Monda who is also a consultant in the arts, and a well respected international art critic contributed to the Herald’s visual arts as an analyst-writer was honoured based on his first-hand research throughout the country, at personal expense, despite numerous difficulties, logistic limitations and challenges, lack of sustenance and lodgings, his ongoing research and analysis countrywide on public health, public health communication, healthcare, healthcare systems, animal health, zoonotic diseases, and disease control, demonstrates his thorough understanding of the new age concept of One Health and his resolute commitment to animal health and disease control in Zimbabwe.
He was responsible for creating the necessary symbiosis between effective communication, education and practical application of primary animal health.
Monda who has invested time and effort in agricultural human development and the compilation of agro economic data that informs national agricultural policy, was also honoured in Italy recently for his detailed investigations and analysis on Zimbabwe’s agricultural trajectory, based on first-hand encounters with farmers throughout the country’s provinces.
Also acknowledged was his advocacy for the use of traditional knowledge and indigenous based technologies for the benefit of rural and national agricultural production, with regards to food security, micronutrient deficiency and malnutrition, climate change, agriculture and global warming, livestock husbandry, cattle production, the promotion of small grains, organic farming, land and soil conservation, ecology and ecological conservation in Zimbabwe have earned Monda international accolades. According to the Italian-based FAO.
“Monda’s unique contribution to agriculture and diseases control in Zimbabwe echoes FAO’s mission to improve agrifood economics, ensure sustainable animal production and health, mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis and safeguard biodiversity and the environment using indigenous heritage and the essence and substance of culture in indigenous languages to relate to people is highly commended . . . ”
At the same time he was highly commended by UN agencies and other international organisations who acknowledged, “the novel and consistent way he tackled global issues and policies that have an impact on Zimbabwe concerning climate change and environmental degradation is acknowledged and highly commended.”
Earlier, Monda was applauded for his public health communication in the mass-media and digital platforms for information on health and agro-veterinary issues — “presented in a novel and consistent way, . . . that is accessible to the layman and edifying for the professional” according to the chief adjudicators for the 2023 APHCA — Afro Public Health Communicator Awards.
Monda’s research, reports and recommendations covered: agricultural technical innovation, agricultural support policy, occupational health and safety in agriculture, integrated pest management, pest and disease control in horticulture, pest and disease control in communal areas, dairy farming, organic farming, sustainable farming, smart farming, robotics and digital apps, water security, aquaculture, agricultural law, agriculture support policy and investment, agro economics, agricultural reform, gender and farming, investment in agriculture, land rehabilitation and conservation, veterinary epidemiology, veterinary pharmacology, animal health, animal virology, animal genetic resources, genomics and cattle breeding, amongst many others.
These have formed the basis of many agricultural legislation and policy development in Zimbabwe, and align with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and FAO’s missions of sustainability and food security in tandem with environmental protection.
Monda’s published and broadcast work interrogate agricultural policy, development and innovations issues in Zimbabwe relating to four inter-related development pillars on the role of nutrition in human health as national development concerns in Zimbabwe.
Dr Monda’s practical field research work and peer-reviewed articles are referenced in over 600 academic papers in various regional and international universities and academic institutions, and have empowered countless indigenous new farmers since the land reform, especially rural women farmers and have become the major reference and source of research for a wide spectrum of academic disciplines pertaining to agro-veterinary development in Zimbabwe.
Internationally trained and with an impressive local, regional and international track record in agriculture, Agro-Veterinary Epidemiology and Clinical Animal Pharmacology; including the development of ethno-botanical indigenous medicines, land management, specialist agronomy, and pharmacology for general agro-production, Monda preside over eight years of concerted research and interface with both communal and commercial farmers.
He is experienced in the fields of veterinary epidemiology, veterinary pharmacology and public veterinary medicine.
Monda attained a BSc Animal Science, in Arusha, Tanzania and later studied Animal Virology and Veterinary Medical Epidemiology at Harper Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Shropshire, UK, and attained a PhD in Agriculture. From the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK, he attained certification in Land and Water Management, and a diploma in Agricultural Development Studies from Reading University, Reading, UK.
He gained a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), from Colorado University, Colorado, USA, and a Masters in Public Health Communication from Purdue University, USA.
In 2011 he attained a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
While in the USA Monda served on various commissions on agricultural policies, veterinary medicine practice, global climate change adaptation campaigns, water and sanitation and public health policies and laws.
During extension training in the USA, Canada, Brazil, EU, Sweden, Malaysia and Eastern and Southern Africa, Monda received specialist hands-on training covering: Agricultural Mechanisation and Maintenance, Irrigation, Abattoir Management, veterinary medicine, zoonotic medical research, bio-security disease control, disease diagnosis, bacteriology, parasitology, toxicology, cattle feeding systems, nutrition management and feed formulation, farm investigations and disease scouting, agricultural mechanisation, heritage farming, EBV and cattle genomics Viticulture, Citriculture, Botanical Conservation, Forestry Conservation, Floriculture.
He is also the first Zimbabwean to attain an international cross-discipline post-graduate university degree in agricultural business administration, medicine and veterinary epidemiology.
Monda has been writing since 1995. More recently, Monda was an invited guest at the Africa Health & Medlab Africa, in October, last year at the Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, and an invited guest and public health correspondent at the World AMR Awareness Week – Preventing Antimicrobials Resistance in Africa, held in November 2023, at the HICC, in Harare, and the Gender Awareness and Activism Week exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe officiated by HE Ms Margret Verwijk, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter