Ninety-Two Enrol in Bambili Agricultural Institutes

Transformed to train Agro-pastoral Entrepreneurs (APE), the Regional College (RCA) and Technical School of Agriculture (TSA), Bambili, which hitherto, trained Senior Agricultural Technicians, Technicians and Assistant Technicians of Agriculture, have enrolled 92 students for the new training programme conceived to train reference Agro-pastoral Entrepreneurs, capable of creating jobs and producing for the nation's industries. It is all about reforms in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development which ensure that the training programme will produce BTS or HND graduates after two years of training to create more employment for other youths.

Launching the 2012/2013 academic year in Bambili on December 5, 2012, the Director of the Technical School of Agriculture, Ndi Jonathan, said 56 pioneer students have enrolled for the course in the Regional College and 36 in TSA. The programme is expected to graduate Agro-pastoral Entrepreneurs defined as people who handle farms of significant economic sizes, after combining many activities and employing hired labour. The Director of RCA, Loga Lam Leonard Justin later told pressmen that Agro-pastoral Entrepreneurs constitute a vital link in second generation agriculture. It emerged from the event that an Agro-pastoral Entrepreneur could either be the proprietor or hired Manager to coordinate the production and marketing activities of the farm. It is also his mission to analyze the results of the enterprise, take decisions and regulate activities. He is the focal point in the process of production.

In effect, the role of an Agro-pastoral Entrepreneur in modern day agriculture is summed up as the one who initiates the business activity, organises the factors of production, takes decisions, coordinates the business firm, introduces innovations, handles the budget and bears the risks and uncertainties. It is against this backdrop that speaker after speaker at the launching event acknowledged that RCA and TSA are into a major transformation to promote the nation's agriculture.