St Joseph Tongoona High cultivates skills and income through Agriculture

By Tadiwa Shunje
ZAKA- St Joseph Tongoona High School is transforming education through practical agriculture projects
that are equipping learners with life skills while generating income to support the school operations.
Located a few kilometers from Jerera Gowthpoint, the school has embraced farming as a key part of its
learning system with pupils actively involved in fish farming, piggery, crop production and poultry.
The school Head Of Department for practicals and agriculture teacher Never Mukuhudzi said the school
runs a fish pond stocked with bream which they harvest every three months and sold to the staff and
local community.
“We run a fish pond with breams where we normally harvest every three months and sell them to the
staff and locals,” said Mukuhudzi.
The piggery project has 61 pigs which Mukuhudzi said were sold live at various stages while others are
slaughtered and sold to the staff and the surrounding community as well.
Crop production is another major focus area, the school manages two plots that were under maize
production and a garden where tomatoes and various vegetables are grown.
Mukuhudzi said these projects were not only meant for food and cash production but were mainly
,meant to provide hands-on learning opportunities for learners where they gain practical agricultural
skills that prepare them for life after school.
“If you go in Jerera Growth Point, a number of people who are running poultry projects are our former
leaners who are using the knowledge they got here,” said Mukuhudzi.
The Deputy Head, David Chipezaya said they used sustainable agriculture where the projects
complement each other. He said they conserve water by creating a system where they drain nutritious
water from fish ponds to the garden promoting water.
“To save water, when we want to put in fresh water in the fishpond, we pump out the water to our
garden. This means we don’t waste water. We use a water pump to drain water from the fish pond and
use it to water our garden,” said Chipezaya.
He said money generated from the agricultural produce sustained school operations and the school
does not solely relies on fees and said the school was paying a loan that they borrowed to buy a bus and
the proceeds from agriculture were coming in handy.
“Funds generated from the agricultural projects are reinvested into the school, supporting sports
activities and infrastructure development, this approach reduces reliance on school fees and
strengthens the school’s ability to sustain its operations.
We are currently paying the bus loan but the gap is not felt much because we are still able to do other
basic monetary requirements,” said Chipezaya.