Varsity launches farm attachment for agro-students

Kibibi Mramba inspects a bee hive. Egerton University has launched a field attachment programme in which students will spend at least eight weeks with farmers. Dubbed Farm Attachment Programme, the initiative aims at exposing students to field work while giving farmers an opportunity to learn from the young experts. PHOTO | FILE 

In Summary

• The programme that was officially launched at Njoro Campus by Nakuru and Baringo Counties Executive in-charge of Agriculture this week has been ongoing on a pilot basis for the last two years.
• Though all students are supposed to go for field attachment as a course requirement, this programme is intense as students partly become managers and teachers at the same time.

Egerton University has launched a field attachment programme in which students will spend at least eight weeks with farmers.

Dubbed Farm Attachment Programme, the initiative aims at exposing students to field work while giving farmers an opportunity to learn from the young experts.

The programme that was officially launched at Njoro Campus by Nakuru and Baringo Counties Executive in-charge of Agriculture this week has been ongoing on a pilot basis for the last two years.

Prof Nancy Mungai, Director, Board of Undergraduate Studies, said students will be exposed to real farming experience in readiness for the job market.

Since the programme was first experimented, 250 students have been attached to various farms. Students are sent to farms, where farmers act as ‘parents’ while students act as experts and advisers.

“From the feedback I have been receiving, both students and farmers have benefitted immensely,” says Prof Mungai. William Boit, a farmer from Ravine, could not hide his joy having benefitted immensely from one of the students.

“I hosted a student from Thika who introduced me to tissue culture bananas farming and now I have a plantation of more than 500 stems,” said Boit during the event at Egerton University.

Though all students are supposed to go for field attachment as a course requirement, this programme is intense as students partly become managers and teachers at the same time.

When they go to the farms, students, Prof Mungai noted, are able to understand and appreciate what a farmer goes through typically and familiarise with opportunities and challenges in the industry.