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Elton Manguwo
THE Government is rolling out refresher courses for extension workers to keep them abreast with technological innovations taking place in the sector, as the nation moves to modernise farming in line with Vision 2030 of becoming an upper middle income economy.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary Dr John Basera said: “We are on a journey to achieve Vision 2030 and one of the key dictates is to change and improve the way we do farming in the country and extension service workers are crucial in supporting and feeding farmers with the pertinent expertise.”
Dr Basera hinted that the programme was also meant to bridge the knowledge gap between traditional and modern practices of doing farming and help boost the performance of farmers.
He was addressing attendees at the handover ceremony of motor bikes to Agritex officials for use by for extension officers at his Ngungunyana office in Harare.
It is critical to fully empower extension workers to enable them to execute their duty effectively, as the country aims to bounce back in terms of food production.
This season’s refresher courses will hammer on the Government’s thrust of farmers taking farming as a business in line with the drive to commercialise rural agriculture through the rural development agenda.
In addition, the refresher courses will focus on equipping the extension workers with the much-needed technical information, as the country heads into the 2022/23 summer cropping season.
“My Ministry and The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Research and Technology are championing Agriculture Education 5, 0 that now encompasses innovation and information communication technologies aimed at matching skills with industrial agricultural needs, dovetailing into the development agenda of transforming the dynamic agricultural industry,” observed Dr Basera.
Prior to the adoption of the 5, 0 curriculum, agriculture education focused on training and provision of extension services neglecting the need for entrepreneurship and business practices in the agricultural sector.
“As we started our journey under the Agriculture Recovery Plan, we began by capacitating our extension staff at mobility level. After every six months, they sit for examinations where they will be examined for modules such as taking farming as a business, agro-prenuership, general agronomics, technical issues and so forth, hence they will disseminate the same information to our farmers and the farmers will then transform the agriculture sector for us,” said Dr Basera.
The agriculture sector remains one of the country’s top revenue earners and is the most capacitated to alleviate poverty than any other sector making it crucial to equip extension workers with vital knowledge. They are the keys to unlocking the agriculture sector’s potential in this age of unpredictable weather patterns and global supply chain disturbances.
“We believe that extension service will transform the agriculture sector for us, so we have to capacitate them to make the wing so robust and responsive to the needs of farmers”, said Dr Basera.
Online Reporter