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Minister Lazarus Dokora

Brenda Ziga Harare Bureau
THE government introduced agriculture at Grade 7 to empower pupils with farming skills at a tender age, Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Lazarus Dokora, has said. Dokora said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mashonaland East Provincial Education director Christopher Chihota at a conservation agriculture workshop for school children organised by the Zimbabwe Farmers Union.

“The Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union has come just at the right time by introducing this agriculture project in schools. “Agriculture is one of the most important life skills to the extent that we now have it as a matter of policy in our educational curriculum at primary and secondary levels,” he said.

He said the youths had not been trained to appreciate agriculture as economically rewarding.

“It’s our duty to introduce agriculture at the very earliest stage in the school curriculum. Most of our school leavers flock to urban areas with the hope of finding employment but because they don’t get employed, they end up doing all sorts of anti-social activities.’’

Dokora said the project would increase adoption of conservation agriculture by the community. “The good thing about this project is that it’s not only focusing on school children but is aiming at the increased adoption of conservation agriculture by the community.

“The demonstration plots are established at the schools working together with the community through the school developments committees,” he said. ZFU director, Paul Zacharia, said young farmers’ clubs were now established in schools.

“The partnership with the ministry has expanded even to the extent that young farmers’ club are now being established in every primary and secondary school in the country,” he said.