Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Land Reform Minister Inge Zaamwani has encouraged UNAM to continue developing new technologies and sustainable farming practices and to transfer knowledge to farmers to improve productivity.

Zaamwani made the call at the Ogongo UNAM campus during President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah's visit there.

Zaamwani is pleased to hear that UNAM is offering short courses to farmers in the surrounding areas and across other regions where it operates.

She said such initiatives will go a long way in facilitating knowledge transfer to farmers, thereby improving productivity in the agricultural sector.

Zaamwani said that, as directed by the president, the ministry works closely with UNAM in terms of research, new production methods, and modern technologies.

The ministry is also interested in cooperating with UNAM to train farmers through short, demand-driven courses that are not necessarily at diploma level.

"We also want to cooperate with UNAM specifically in our green schemes in terms of improving our capacity for extension services, in terms of monitoring our production area and using our students. We want to see more UNAM students coming to our green schemes as part of their practical experiences to see what is being done and to also advise on how we can improve our production, especially in adopting new farming practices, which include technologies to improve the time from planting to harvesting."