Vice President Nalumango urges graduates to be self-reliant

Vice President Mutale Nalumango has implored graduates to form cooperatives and venture into agriculture.

Mrs Nalumango has also called for a paradigm shift among the graduates and youths by taking up agriculture as a business .

She urged the graduates to take advantage of the conducive environment that the government is creating in agriculture such as the provision of loans.

Mrs Nalumango emphasised on the need for graduates to be self employed and not to wait for the government to employ them.

Mrs Nalumango cited accounting, and engineering as some of the skills that graduates can use in enhancing productivity in the agriculture sector.

The Vice President advised graduates to refrain from wandering in streets but to work towards being their own employers.

ZANIS reports that Mrs

Nalumango said this during the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute 2024 field day held at Mount Makulu Research station.

And speaking earlier at the same event, Minister of Agriculture Mtolo Phiri said that the drought experienced in the 2023/2024 farming season has destroyed both the crop and seed.

Mr Phiri said it is worrying that the seed which was supposed to be harvested this year has all gone to waste.

He however, said the government is working around the clock to ensure that the farmers are protected.

Mr Phiri has since implored the Zambia Researcher Institute and other research institutions to expand their area of research with a view to increasing productivity.

And Lusaka Province Minister, Sheal Mulyata called for harnessing the power of research in the wake of climate change.