Gov’t moving to revamp School of Agriculture curriculum

The government is moving to revamp the curriculum of the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) and discussions are being held with a visiting team from the South Carolina State University in the US.

Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha met with a team from the University which is meeting with various academic bodies in hopes of establishing institutional linkages within the agriculture sector.

During the meeting, Mustapha indicated that the government was working to better equip young individuals who wish to pursue a career in agriculture, a release from the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. He also said that the government was working to make the sector less labour-intensive and more profitable.

“The Guyana School of Agriculture is one of Guyana’s premier agricultural learning institutions. As a government, we want to make the curriculum more relatable to our policies and the direction agriculture is heading regionally and globally. I think there is room for improvement and that some collaborative effort should be put forward to achieve this goal. We need to ensure our young people are taught that agriculture is a business and are given the necessary tools to thrive as budding `agripreneurs’,” Mustapha said.

Highlighting that the University’s Agribusiness Programme focuses on the marketing and distribution of food and fibre products, Mustapha said that the GSA’s curriculum should also focus on similar areas in the context of Guyana’s agriculture sector.

Since its establishment in 1963, the GSA has produced some of the Caribbean’s most outstanding leaders in the area of agriculture such as the current Premier of Montserrat, Easton Taylor-Farrell.

The university team which comprises Dr. Williams Whitaker, Acting Dean, and Dr. Haile Selassie, Professor of Agribusiness and Economics is also scheduled to meet with the Head and other officials from the Guyana School of Agriculture.

Other officials on the delegation include Dr. Maria James, Acting Chair for the Department of Family and Consumer Science; Dr. Moreen Joseph, Assistant Professor of Nutrition; Dr. Learie Lukc, Associate Professor and Director within the Office of International and National Student Exchange Programmes; and Odeidra Williams, Director of Public Relations for the College of Agriculture and Family and Consumer Affairs.