Posted on March, 26, 2019 at 09:54 am
Written by Roselyn Phiri
Chitedze Research Station in Lilongwe has engaged secondary school students in agricultural lessons to build their interest to take farming as a career.
Through a project dubbed Agriculture Productivity Programme (APPSA) the research station has engaged youths from its surrounding schools, namely Ulemu Private, Ngowe, Njerwa and Chitedze Community Day.
Chitedze Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) APPSA coordinator Maxwell Banda said they have engaged the youth because they want to inculcate a spirit of valuing farming as a career whilst they are still in secondary school.
“We want the youths to do farming as a business and employ others in future,” Banda said.
Agriculture research officer Hector Malaidza said the project is aimed at changing the youth’s mindset that farming is for the elderly only.
To this effect, he said through the project, they intend to form a youth agriculture network.
“If we are talking about commercialisation and good practices in agriculture, we need to start with the young ones,” he said.
Deputy Director responsible for technology transfer David Luka said it is better to involve the youths in agriculture production because they easily adopt new technologies.
“The youths are the ones who can easily translate technology into practice unlike the elderly people.
“Most farmers are not able to read and write, they have difficulties; therefore, the youths are the right agency,” he said.
Experts go to the schools to teach the students on specialised topics and are also taken to demonstration fields.
The project started in 2014 and will end in January 2020. Initially, it targeted everybody but now its focus is on the youths.
Source: Malawi News Agency (MANA Online)