A very warm welcome to the Faculty of Agriculture . This will give you an insight to the activities of the Faculty and the contributions to the country and the region that the Faculty has made towards training, agricultural research and development. We hope that by the end of the tour, you will have realized the importance of agricultural training and research in the improvement of smallholders’ livelihoods and in the development of the economy in Zimbabwe.
Over 70 percent of the population in Zimbabwe derive their livelihoods from agriculture making agriculture the major economic mainstay of the country. It contributes 15 to 20 percent to the GDP, 40 to 45 percent to exports and 60 percent to the raw materials utilized by the domestic manufacturing industry. From this it is clear that the agricultural sector is central to the socio and economic development of Zimbabwe. Thus the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe, being the oldest, largest and with the highest number of the most experienced scientists in the country, plays a central role in the development of the manpower needs required to fire the agricultural industry and in finding solutions to the numerous constraints faced by the farmers, agricultural extension services, the private sector involved in agriculture and other actors in the industry.
During the last 10 years, the Faculty has produced over 1000 dynamic agricultural cadres at undergraduate level, about 200 MSc graduates and 36 doctorates. Over ninety percent of these graduates have found employment either in the private sector and or government ministries, especially the Ministry of Agriculture. A number of our graduated students with postgraduate qualifications are now lecturers either at the University of Zimbabwe, Bindura University, Chinhoyi University or Midlands University. Some are lecturing in South African universities. A sizeable number of our former postgraduate students are even lecturing in the UK, Australian and American universities. Others work for local and international aid/donor agencies, NGOs and commercial banks. The wide distribution and academic recognition of our former students in top jobs in Zimbabwe and around the world is a reflection of the quality of the teaching and support staff in the Faculty. Equipping graduates for a career is something the Faculty has been good at. In fact during the late 80s, the Faculty of Agriculture was once rated the best agriculture faculty in Africa by a United Nations department dealing with agricultural training and research issues. We are very proud of our past achievements. We do not only want to maintain our standards, our goal is to keep improving in our training and research activities and to be recognised world-wide as one of the best agriculture faculties.
Looking into the future, our strategic plan is to forge strong links with the private sector, civil society and government in order to work together for the socio-economic development of the nation of Zimbabwe. We are going to introduce entrepreneurial skills development and other life skills in our curriculum to enable our future graduates to move away from being employment seekers to creators of employment opportunities.
Finally, if you are looking for partnerships in consultancies, training for short courses, development and commercialization of agricultural technologies and collaborative research work, the Faculty of Agriculture is a partner for you. We have the highest concentration of experienced scientists, PhD holders and professors in the country. Once you decide to partner with us, you will be assured of experiencing our core values of honest, integrity, fairness, trust, respect and professionalism.
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