The Fiji National University’s College of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (CAFF) will review its curriculum to meet the requirements of a developing Fiji agricultural industry.
Dean of the college, Professor Paras Nath, who joined the organisation last year, said they had started the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (BScAG) program while some other new programs were being developed.
Mr Nath said some of the new courses would be offered in the next academic year while five new courses had already started.
“In the old Fiji College of Agriculture, we were only having diploma in tropical agriculture. Now we have started the BScAG program that is also for three years and the minimum qualification is Form Seven pass. We had a higher diploma in agriculture, that is, the two years of the BScAG program,” Professor Nath said.
“We have higher diploma in animal health. We have developed trade diploma in forestry and trade diploma in fisheries. We are preparing the BSc Forestry and BSc Fishery courses.
“At the same time, we are working on some high degree level program like Master of Science (MSc) in agriculture economics, entomology and certain other disciplines. For instance, in fishery and forestry, we are planning to start MSc.”
Professor Nath said there were certain programs that would lead to BSc, particularly in agriculture economics, entomology and fishery.
Since Fiji is a ‘heaven’ for horticultural crops, they have prepared a one year course in this aspect too.
Apart from this, the college has also prepared four short courses, which Professor Nath believes will be beneficial for farmers.
“The concept of preparing all these four short courses has come to me only after interacting with the rural farmers so I thought it will be a very useful tool for them,” he said.
“They can upskill their knowledge and they will be having their own business. Also if they are serving somewhere, they can do their job in a better way.
“For that purpose, we have started ornamental horticulture, commercial floriculture, plant propagation and nursery management and apiculture. These are the four short courses which are going to be offered soon,” Professor Nath added.
College of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry has a total roll of 460 students.
The Dean is hopeful that in the next two to three years, there will be more than 1000 students enrolled at the college.