The Department of Livestock Development under the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries has called for investment in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in animal farming and agriculture.
The department’s Chief Livestock Products Officer, Daniel Chonde told Lusaka Star that ICT can be used in many areas such as ration formulation, grading of animal quality and carcass quality as well as digitization of the pattern of animal types and species in the country.
Mr. Chonde further said the manpower coming from university and college graduates into the industry is enough but there exists a need to rethink the training curriculum.
The training that we been receiving in the passed 15 to 20 years I think was tailored towards the answering of questions that are not really so critical to the industry. We need home grown solutions to impact the industry so that the man power that we receive actually have knowledge that is tailored towards the usage of technology other than just depending on foreign knowledge and text book knowledge.
Mr. Chonde.
Meanwhile, University of Zambia fifth year Agriculture Science student Bangotse Mangimela said she doesn’t feel the institution gives them enough hands on experience as compared to what is out in the industry.
I am currently doing my attachments and I can assure you the stuff I have found appears to be new because mostly at UNZA we do theory than practicals. We don’t really have that hands on experience,
Ms. Mangimela.
She went on to compare how methods still being used in the industry today are the same old methods that have proved to be unreliable during trying times and need more improvement.