Botswana's karakul renaissance - Ministry of Agriculture

B otswana
College of
A griculture
TO TURN INTO A UNIVERSITY
Article: Theresa Mokgwathi
Photos: Pius Nkunda
Botswana College of Agriculture on May
5, 2010 familiarized the media fraternity
with its facilities and strategy for 2012
and beyond. The Principal of the College
Dr Ricks Chabo said that the purpose of
the event was to give the media first hand
information on the development of the
college as a partner. He said the college
has a lot to unpackage to the public
Chabo said that the college’s new strategy
is in alignment with the countries Vision
2016, to be an Educated, Informed
Nation, and a Prosperous, Productive and
Innovative nation.
He further said that the National
Development Plan aims to diversify
the economy from mining to renewal
economic sectors such as agriculture and
tourism and this means the college has a
defined role to play in the development
of the country especially in alleviation
of poverty in the country. “Our role as
the college is to provide knowledge
and skill to eradicate poverty and our
college indeed provides these skills and
knowledge” said Chabo.
Another speaker, Dr Mataba Tapela,Deputy
Dean of Faculty of Agriculture said the
college would be in a position to operate
as a university soon and also graduate to
the production of value added goods. He
said the aims is to focus not only on the
growing of food but to be involved in the
production of food until the last process of
shelve life and putting food on the table.
The college’s vision is to be an agricultural
university of international repute.
Tapela said the mission of the university
will be to produce quality graduates for
the agricultural sector through innovative
teaching and research.
“The university will expand the training
niche it already has in the fields of
agriculture and related sciences by
offering new programmes such as food
science and technology, natural resources
management, agri- business and finance,
community development” said Tapela..
He said that there will be a sustainable
social and economic development
through the coordinated and integrated
application of science and technology,
and to also conserve the environment.
He said that focus areas will mainly be
on agribusiness and finance, agricultural
technology, agro-processing, agricultural
biotechnology, animal health, natural
resources management and agricultural
communication.
The University of Agriculture will provide
human resources with relevant skills and
expertise required to drive government
initiatives such as; Agriculture Hub,
NAMPAADD, ISPAAD, Young Farmer’s
fund and self employment.
Tapela said some benefits of the college
turning into a university will be “the
increased impact in the economy through
focused programming that addresses the
whole value chain of the agricultural
industry and community development.
There will also be generation of innovative
solutions for the agro-industry through
research”.
He further said that the new Agriculture
University may expand to include other
research-oriented institutions such as
Department of Agriculture Research
(DAR), National Food Technology
Research Centre (NFTRC), and Maun
Wild life Training Centre (MWTC).He
on that note said that discussions are at
advanced stage for BCA to takeover the
Meat Inspection Training Centre (MITC)
as its satellite campus.
Tapela went on to reveal some of the farm
facilities for practical experience such as
the poultry facilities, dairy facility which
has a milking parlor that was built by
the Agricultural Engineering Department,
a Center pivot irrigation which covers
a field of 320 metres, which irrigates
continual fodder crops, a vegetable
gardens and piggery.
He mentioned that the college has
expanded its facilities to 50% of what
they used to have, for the college to be
in a position to operate as a university.
The new offices, an engineering
workshop, administration block, three
new lecture halls, one with a capacity of
accommodating
1 0 0 p e o p l e ,
the
second
accommodating 150
people and the third one
accommodating 250 people,
a library that accommodates
300 people and a campus which
is about 600 hectors and a large
land.
He said that most of the physical and
human resources are already in place
so the development cost is not expected
to be high. “The actual cost estimate for
the project will be determined during
the development of a full proposal” said
Tapela.
“BCA staff is trained to the required
academic level, and is already at
par with counterparts at benchmark
universities” Tapela said. The college
has 47 PhD citizen holders and 15 non
citizens. There are 37 citizens’ masters’
holders, 2 non citizens and 5 bachelors’
holders who are citizens. He went on to
say that the college is introducing a PhD
programme which will be new, starting
in August 2010.
He however revealed that the need
for the college to be a university was
influenced by the fact that the college
has been experiencing difficulties in
attracting quality staff and students due
to the fact that it is labeled a college. He
said that people prefer universities over
colleges, giving an example of students
who after they finish Cambridge regard
all the universities as their first priority
and come to BAC as a last resort.
He went on to mention that the other
constrain that they are experiencing
as a college is that it is difficult to be
truly independent and take advantage
of emerging opportunities because they
always have to seek for approval from
the University of Botswana as they are
an associate institution of the University
of Botswana. He mentioned that there
is redundancy in administrative and
governance structures. He also said that
they are experiencing limited growth as
the college is facing challenges in forging
relations with regional universities
May 2010