Students studying Agriculture at the state owned University of Liberia (UL) have been outlining reasons why the College of Agriculture and Forestry is yet to have a farm to write home about.
Some of the students who spoke with a team of Reporters at the UL Fendall campus recently, outlined several challenges faced by the institution that are preventing them from engaging in full scale practical farming activities including animal husbandry, mainly at a large scale.
Some of them said among other things, the farming tools is one of the major problems.
They also said they have to pay for their own seedlings and other agriculture materials including cutlasses, rain boot, hoe, and shovels, for their practical work at a small garden they have at the back of the Academic Building in Fendall.
Two of the students, D. Newton Seequeh and Moses Devine Mala Kerula complained that the land space provided for them is even very small.
According to them, the University Of Liberia should have a farm for them to work on in stain what they call a kitchen garden.
The Agriculture students are at the same time calling on authorities of their College to put in place a better structure to help maintain the current garden and as soon as possible establish a farm.
Current arrangements to maintain the existing garden is poor, the students said. As the result, they said they do not benefit from the crops they plant, since the crops are not taken care of when they (students) take their semester vacation.
Meanwhile an instructor of the UL Agriculture College, Mr. Lawson Yan has also added his voice in the cry of the students on the need to address challenges being faced by students in getting practical exposure to this field.
According to him, 75% of several courses being offered (including 221, 301 and 401) require practical work and students should.
Instructor Yan therefore stressed the need for Agriculture students to have all equipment and tools necessary to make their learning process an enjoyable one.
The University Of Liberia Agriculture College was founded 1942 to train students in various Agricultural disciplines. Gartee G. Musa, Benetta G. Barclay and Massa Seepo contributed to this report. This is the second in a series of campus-based stories by students of the Mass Communication Department at the University of Liberia (UL) to be featured on this platform over the next week