Colleges to include climate smart agric

Nesia Mhaka Correspondent
Government has developed a manual to mainstream Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in all agricultural colleges.

The manual will guide lecturers on sustainable solutions of conservative agriculture and resilience building to promote food production.

This follows the realisation that the current syllabus does not address climate change issues, mitigation and adaptation and needed to be aligned to current and future issues affecting the industry.

The main-streaming of the CSA manual is being facilitated by the department of Agriculture Education and Farmers Training under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement in partnership with climate change management department in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

The project is funded by the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), the Green Impact Trust, Adam Smith International, among other development partners.

The CTCN is the implementation arm of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Technology Mechanism, promotes the accelerated transfer of technologies for energy-efficient, low-carbon and climate-resilient development.

Climate Smart Agriculture manual is a document designed to provide adequate and effective training on climate change issues to agriculture colleges so that they acquire the expertise to impart climate smart agriculture to build resilience to climate change.

Speaking to The Herald yesterday, deputy director of Agriculture Education and Farmers Training Mr Francis Borgia Vengai said main-streaming CSA manual in colleges will help the nation in generating new forms of knowledge, technologies and agricultural support services to improve food productivity.

“This training manual aims to support the transformation of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector into a sustainable production system by maximising the climate opportunities and reducing climate change-related risks on the agriculture sector,” said Mr Vengai.

“The manual is complimented by a capacity building process, including training of trainers, which will enable broader dissemination to agriculture students and extension workers across the country. Climate smart agriculture should start at colleges and universities. We want students to be innovative and that is how as a country we can be able to sustain ourselves.”

Mr Vengai said the current curriculum does not support the component of climate smart agriculture, hence the training of the trainer initiative become important for agriculture growth.

“The country faces a challenge in adapting its agriculture education and farmer training component to climate-smart technologies, that is, Climate-Smart Agriculture,” he said

“Most farmers lack adequate knowledge of climate-smart agriculture and sustainable environmental practices, which further increases their vulnerability, as well as the risks to agriculture and the environment.”