.jpg?command_1=resize&width_1=220 "Agriculture at Baobab College")
In the wake of Covid-19 uncertainty, crashing rates of exchange and consequent economic woes, there is a greater need than ever to become self-sufficient as a nation. Farming in Zambia has always been a fundamental part of the DNA of the country and a means toward improving the economy. As such, we should be supporting agriculture in our community at grass-roots level. Baobab College has taken a small step in this direction and has committed to teaching our young people how to farm.
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We have about one hectare of land and our IGCSE class has just started: the beginnings, we hope of great things. The potential is endless: we could teach our little ones how to grow vegetables whilst at the other end of the scale, an ambitious but entirely achievable possibility is the development of other courses and projects for more practically minded students.
Our plans for the plot involve initially putting down a crop of millet under overhead irrigation, followed by vegetables, small animals and eventually, an orchard. Our students will have the wonderful opportunity of doing their own research projects as part of the course.
An important part of this venture is reaching out to local farmers so that our young people can be inspired to take up careers in agriculture or agribusiness in Zambia.
To this end we would like to invite our farmers to be part of this venture and become involved in our Baobab community. We are hoping that we can visit local farms to experience large scale ventures, and perhaps anyone with an area of expertise could visit the school to offer advice, to give lectures to our students, or even contribute material help such as irrigation equipment, seed, indeed anything which would help our venture to be a real success.
We look forward to collaborating with our farmers and our agribusiness experts, who can help us make a real difference in raising the profile of agriculture in Zambia.
In charge of this venture is Mrs Maureen Odendaal. She studied Agriculture at Newcastle University in the UK, with honours in pest and disease management. She then completed a research degree at the University of Zimbabwe, with a focus on insect pest population dynamics and integrated pest management. After working in forestry, she moved with her family to Middle Sabi, working ten years on a farm with 200ha of irrigated wheat and cotton, sugar cane, to mention just a few crops. Maureen also successfully introduced IGCSE Agriculture at Hillcrest College in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe: she is very excited to do the same at Baobab College.
.jpg?command_1=resize&height_1=85 "School Magazine 2020-2021")
.jpg?command_1=resize&height_1=85 "From the Board Chairman")
.jpeg?command_1=resize&height_1=85 "Styles of learning: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic")
