The government is in the process of overhauling the curriculum of the Kenya School of Agriculture (KSA) to introduce the use of technology in a bid to enhance training, Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has said.
Mutahi, who spoke on Tuesday, June 3, during the International Flouriculture Trade Expo (IFTEX), said the ministry is keen to introduce technology-related courses in a whole plan that will also include the use of drones, AI, and big data in their training.
The new courses will be marketed across the institution's 10 campuses, Mutahi said, adding that the government is in the process of elevating the institution's infrastructural capacity to accommodate the new courses and facilities.
The CS said the institution will also seek to reinforce its collaboration with other institutions across the globe, especially through the seasonal-workers-placement (SWP) programme, which enables Kenyan students and farmers to work and learn about agriculture in the UK.
These developments, according to the CS, will be fundamental in pumping vital agricultural skills into agricultural students and farmers, in addition to strengthening the country's agricultural capacity.
"While this is a good start, we need to make this sustainable and think long-term. These skills are needed here more than anywhere else," Kagwe said.
"Benchmarking and twinning with other centres of excellence across the globe, offering short-term, certified, marketable courses that meet the felt-needs of a modern agricultural sector," he added.
Furthermore, the CS said that the ministry is adopting a new system that will see farmers receive agricultural information through their phone, for swift decision making, which he assured will increase their productivity.
"By using a mobile-first and last-mile presence, we shall be giving our farmers timely, correct, actionable information to enable them to make time-critical decisions. Further, by equipping them with the right tools, we shall be empowering them to raise productivity per acre and the quality of their produce," he said.
The announcement comes almost two Months after the CS, on Wednesday, 9 April, said that the ministry will leverage drone technology to collect critical soil data.
Currently, soil data is collected through labs; however, according to the CS, shifting from this traditional method to a more technologically advanced soil data collection system will be more efficient for farmers.
"I believe the use of technology today is much easier because we can send information through our phones, just like how we are sending information about fertilizer. There’s no reason why we can't extend that to their soils and everything else they are doing," the CS said.
