The Provost, College of Agriculture and Animal Science (CAAS), Prof Aliyu Mohammed Wakawa, has expressed willingness of the school to give emphasis on practical training in line with the NBTE revised curricula.
Prof Wakawa, who spoke in a media interview on the sideline of the Agriculture Curriculum Review Workshop in Kaduna, said the initiative was to produce graduates who would meet industry demands.
The workshop was organised by a committee set up by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to review the agriculture curriculum for polytechnics and other diploma awarding institutions.
CAAS, which is located at Mando in Kaduna, is one of the three agriculture-based colleges under the Division of Agricultural Colleges, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
“The college will work closely with NBTE for successful implementation of the revised curricula for agriculture courses.
“We believe this will enhance our capacity to produce graduates with practical and global competence”, he said.
The provost also spoke on the rationale for the curricula review, saying tertiary institutions had for years produced graduates who struggled to meet industry demands due to outdated curricula.
He said many of them found it difficult to adapt when they encountered technologically advanced systems in agriculture industry.
Prof Wakawa stressed that the college would support the curricula implementation through leveraging on its extensive facilities.
The college, according to him, has over 50 hectares of fertile land dedicated to practical teaching of arable farming in addition to a 1.5 hectare irrigation facility for dry season farming.
The provost expressed willingness of the college to upgrade its livestock facilities, covering poultry, fishery, cattle, small ruminants, piggery, and rabbitry in order to align with the revised curricula.
“The goal is essentially to meet the 70 percent practical benchmark set by NBTE for the overall benefits of our students after graduation’, he also said.
Prof Wakawa disclosed that the college has qualified personnel, saying however that the school would collaborate with NBTE to retrain its lecturers, instructors, and technologists.
He explained that the retraining would focus on industry-based skills such as animal breeding, artificial insemination technology, precision farming, as well as climate-smart and digital livestock management systems.
The provost lauded the federal government and NBTE Executive Secretary, Prof Idris Bugaje, for the curricula review as part of the concerted efforts to reposition agriculture education in Nigeria.