Farmer field schools concept unveiled

LANDS, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary, Professor Obert Jiri, has announced that every village in Zimbabwe is to have a farmer field school under the Government’s Vision 2030 programme.

Farmer field schools are an approach based on people-centred learning and offer space for hands-on group learning, enhancing skills for critical analysis and improved decision-making by locals.

Speaking at the Esigodini Agricultural College in Umzingwane district, Prof Jiri revealed that every school would be convened by a village head and run by farmers.

As part of the Government’s efforts to reach Vision 2030, he said that agricultural colleges should provide resource persons for these schools.

The UNDP has donated goats, dairy cows and laboratory equipment to the college as part of the climate resilient livelihoods drive to contribute to the Government’s goal of becoming an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

“We want farmer field schools to be established in every village, those are schools without walls, convened by village heads and run by the farmers. We want agricultural colleges to provide resource persons for these farmer field schools wherever the college is situated; that is a key strategy that we want to push going forward,” Prof Jiri.

“We have eight physical agricultural colleges and one virtual college in the country and I can assure you that these colleges will become the engines for agricultural transformation.”

UNDP donated 54 Kalahari and Matabele goats and laboratory equipment to the college.

Prof Jiri said the gesture was a huge milestone as it is in line with the Agriculture Food Systems and Rural Transformation strategy, which was initially developed in 2020 and later revised this year as the country journeys towards Vision 2030.

“In 2021, we also rolled out a new agricultural curriculum, which we called Agriculture Education for Development 5.0, which emphasises training, extension, research, innovation and entrepreneurship. What we are seeing here is a milestone in the activation of this curriculum.

“In 2022, my ministry also appointed various agricultural advisory boards, hence we have the Esigodini Agricultural College advisory board.”

The Esigodini Agricultural College advisory board is chaired by prominent cattle farmer, Mr Obert Chinhamo.

Prof Jiri said the role of the colleges’ boards is to ensure that the new curriculum is implemented.

“We, however, don’t want them to just superintend over the curriculum because they are not academics. We want them to offer advice to the academics and support the colleges to be modernised and today we are witnessing a milestone in what this board and college have done,” he said.

In an interview on the sidelines of the occasion, UNDP resident representative, Dr Ayodele Odusola, said the donation to the college was premised on the desire to contribute to the Government’s goal of becoming an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

“We want to promote climate-proof agriculture in Zimbabwe and we thought the best way is to deal with small farm holders, so that they move from subsistence farming to a commercialised oriented farming system,” he said.

“With the El Nino effect, we want our farmers to engage in activities that will lead to higher incomes and better livelihoods, hence our support for this college to produce a new hybrid of Matabele and Kalahari breeds, so that it increases the market viability of the goats.”