The Department has been offering a three years Bachelor of Science degree programme in Applied Agricultural Extension (AAE). Please click [here] to hear from the students pursing the program. The department is in the process of launching a three years Bachelor of Community Development. Please visit this webpage for updates on the program.
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Agricultural extension conjoins communication and educational dimensions to enable farmers and peasants improve their quality of life. As such, extension is an on-going process of getting useful information to people (communication) to assist them acquire the necessary knowledge (education) (cognitive domain),skills (psychomotor domain), and Attitudes (Affective domain). The educational component involves three domains: Knowledge (cognitive) domain dealing with intellectual or mental skills; skills (psychomotor) domain dealing with acquisition of physical or manual skills; and Attitude (Affective) domain that deals with feelings, and values of the clients. Extension experts and practitioners engage in the educational component by assisting people to learn. Communication involves getting useful information to clients. Within that context, extensionist ensures successful passage of a message or information from one person to another. It is not until a message, has been successfully interpreted by a target audience, that one can claim to have communicated. Thus, communication is that proportion of the message or information, which is shared between the sender and the receiver. Extension experts and practitioners strive to establish commonage between their fields of experiences and the field of experiences of their clients.
Entry requirements shall be as per regulation and guidelines for Degree and Non-Degree Programmes at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Applicants must have attained at least UQF Level 6 (Ordinary Diploma) or NQF Level 4 (Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education) or recognized equivalent prior learning qualifications. Advanced secondary school (A-level) candidates should possess at least two principal passes in either of the following: Geography, Economics, Mathematics, Food and Human Nutrition, Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Zoology/Botany or Science and Practice of Agriculture in the Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education or its equivalent. A-level candidates are also required to possess at least three credits at Ordinary secondary school (O-Level) to be considered for admission.Holders of distinction or credit Diplomas in any Agriculture, Livestock and related fields will be eligible if they possess at least four passes in science or art subjects (or both) in their Ordinary Level Certificate (O.C.S.E.E.) or its equivalent.
Community development is a planned effort to produce physical, human, social, financial and environmental assets that increase the capacity of residents to improve their quality of life. The role of community development agent is to enable community own the development process and the associated outcome. Community development is different from economic development whose focus is creation of wealth through the mobilization of human, financial, capital, physical and natural resources to generate marketable goods and services. The economic developer’s role is to influence the process for the benefit of the community through expanding job opportunities and the tax base. However, those with capital benefit more than community members without adequate capital. Although economic development benefits some community members, the wealth created is a private property owned by certain individuals and corporations. Community development, on the other hand, creates assets that are owned by community members themselves. As such, community development is people centred and sustainable because it gives more power to communities by enabling them to take charge of and sustain their development. Economic development is crafted elsewhere and is brought to the community to help them improve their lives. Community members do not necessarily have a say on economic development interventions. The purpose of community development is to produce assets that may be used to improve the community. On the contrary, the purpose of economic development is to mobilize these assets to benefit the community. Community development is important in the conventional developing word because resources are increasingly becoming scarce.
The general regulations for entry qualifications shall be as per SUA admission Requirements, examination Regulations and Guidelines for undergraduate and Non-Degree programmes at Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Applicants must have attained at least UQF Level 6 (Ordinary Diploma) or NQF Level 4 (Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education) or recognized equivalent prior learning qualifications.
For the direct entry candidates the requirement is TWO principal passes (4 points based on the current NECTA grading system) in any art or science subjects.
OR
Diploma in Community Development or any related art and science fields with at least FOUR PASSES at O-level in any subjects.
See Also: Postgraduate Studies