Training

Training Programme focuses on food production and processing training courses In an effort to provide member service to active members, among many other services, provides food production and processing courses.

These courses can be organized and run at Head Office in Harare or for organized groups at venues selected by the recipients. Minimal training charges, which are reviewed from time to time, are charged. These will cover the cost of buying the required training materials. With costs of goods going up, these fees are subject to change and would be trainees are advised to confirm these on day of registration.

These courses are offered to active members i.e. those who are holders of current year paid up membership cards/ farmer licenses. Courses are offered to groups to cut on costs and time and most important, sharing of ideas and experiences. Groups can be existing or the training teams can assist in organizing the groups (minimum of 10 members per group). Currently, the following courses are on offer to you.

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Herbs, fruits and vegetables drying (solar drying) (3 full days)

Solar dryer construction; Theory on fruits and vegetables drying; Practical on fruit and vegetable drying; Theory on harvesting, storage, , grading and packaging of produce; Practical on harvesting, grading, storage and packaging of produce

Mushroom production (oyster) - 3 days out of Harare and 5 days for Harare participants

The course is run for a minimum of three days for training carried out of Harare and 5 days phased out for the duration of the production cycle for Harare participants. 
The starting time and ending per day is as above. 

The course covers: 

1. Lectures on mushroom production 
2. Practical on : 

• • • Substrate preparation 
    • Packing and seeding of bags 
    • Inspection of growing structures
    • Punching of seeded bags 
    • Harvesting techniques

Sweet potato and cassava product ion and processing (4 days)

The course is run for four days. Starting and ending is the same as the other courses. 
The course covers :

• • Nursery establishment and management (both sweet potatoes and cassava) 
  • Field production and management (both sweet potatoes and cassava) 
  • Economics of sweet potatoes and cassava production
  • Marketing
  • Processing and alternative utilization (depends on availability of produce)

Stock feeds formulation training (3 days)

The course is run for three days. Starting and ending as per other courses. 
The course covers :

• • Basic livestock Management 
  • Farming as a business (FAB)
  • Product Value Addition (PVA) 
  • Raw Material familiarization and preparation 
  • Formulations and storage principles 
  • Machinery Requirements

Bee Keeping Course 3 phases of three days each

The course is run in 3 phases of three days each 

1.Introduction 

Information scouting 

Brainstorming 

Beekeeping and fruit tree terms 

History of beekeeping 

i. local 

ii. regional 

iii international 

Beekeeping/fruits and people 

Beekeeping enterprise: 

Value of beekeeping 

The bee colony : 

Structure of a bee, 

Types of bees 

Bee races/species and distribution

a. Stingless 

b. Asian 

c. European 

d. African 

e. Africanised 

2.  Practicals: bee handling, management, pesticides, legislation 

3.  Bee fodder: pollen, nectar, resin, water and other foods

4.  The nursery unit and the farm, siting and care 

5.  Practicals: siting a nursery and bee units 

6.  Bee trees: indigenous, exotic, shrubs, flowers, vegetables, essentials oil plants 

7.  Pollination service, importance

 8. Commercial beekeeping: the hive, bee houses, apiaries, bee estates, research 

9.  Making a basic beehive 

10. Fruit trees development a. agro-engineering (laying, budding, grafting, root-stocking) b. fruit tree propagation and seedling          development 

11. Api-orchard project development – holing out (agro-ecological zones) 

12. Api-orchard products – harvesting, processing, packaging/storage 

13. Honey bee calendar/fruit tree calendar

Irish potato production (in sacks) Course This course runs for one day (Intensive)

3

 

Leadership development training

These aim to capacitate leaders so that they can carry out their respective roles effectively with confidence.

Complimentary Programmes

• • Cross cutting issues 
  • Gender issues 
  • HIV/AIDS 
  • Environmental issues 
  • Perma-culture and 
  • Small Scale Enterprise Development
  • Farm Business Management as well as provision of cash flow budgets for preferred enterprises.

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NB : Manuals for oyster mushroom, sweet potato production and processing and bee keeping are available on sale to ZFU membership cardholders.