by Zivanai Dhewa

While officiating at the Gwebi Agricultural College graduation ceremony running under the theme, “Unlocking value from partnerships,” Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Retired Air Marshal Perrance Shiri, has called on all Agriculture Extension Officers to think outside the box and improve on agriculture production.

“As we go to work as farm managers or as individuals on our own farms, we need to think of new technologies and innovations that can bring the nation into self-sufficiency in food production, cash crops and other agricultural products,” said Minister Shiri.

Minister Shiri urged the “graduates to work towards attaining the country’s vision of an upper middle income by 2030 through hard work and modernization.”

“I therefore want to emphasise that those in agriculture, particularly people like you graduates, must utilise the knowledge and skills that you have learnt here at Gwebi College to achieve vision 2030,” he said.

Challenging the just graduated extension officers, Minister Shiri said, “We need people who can think of setting up industries that add value to products and thus take the agricultural sector to the next level.  I believe that there are opportunities for you graduates to enter into value addition.”

Minister Shiri noted with concern that of the 94 Diploma students who graduated at Gwebi Agricultural College, 35 were female students and 59 were male, noting a significant tilt towards male students. He urged the college to work towards achieving a 50/50 ration in line with today’s gender balance expectations.

Present at the graduation ceremony were, Chief Beperere, Honourable Minister State for Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs, Mavis Mliswa, Acting University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor, Professor Paul Mapfumo and  Principals of other colleges.