Vision Agriculture Learner's Book 2

VISION PUBLISHING LOWER SECONDARY AGRICULTURE LEARNER'S BOOK 2

Uganda is largely an agrarian economy. Agriculture is the most basic and essential enterprise, with the sector employing over 60 percent of the population. Uganda aspires to transform the sector from subsistence to commercial agriculture. It will then be profitable, competitive, and sustainable to provide food and income security to all the people of Uganda.

Learning Agriculture will produce graduates who have an understanding of the central role and potential that agriculture has in Uganda. Therefore, the subject of Agriculture is critical in building an agriculture literacy among the learners.

Consequently, This New Vision Agriculture Book Two is interactive and practical: it embraces the true attributes of a vocational subject. Throughout this textbook, emphasis has been put not merely on what the learner knows (knowledge), but rather what he or she can do (skill/applicability) with the acquired knowledge to solve real-life problems in the community. The textbook is structured for the learner to not only delight in learning Agriculture, but to develop an eye to spot opportunities where he or she can apply their knowledge and skills to solve real- life problems to produce food for consumption or sale. In this way, a learner can potentially start applying his or her knowledge and skills to start earning an income, even before completing school.

Agriculture shall also positively contribute to the nurturing of the learner's creativity, critical thinking, and innovation as well as practical and entrepreneurial skills. It will also support the learner to do well in other related subjects, such as, Biology and Entrepreneurship. Studying Agriculture shall open the learner to diverse careers including soil and plant scientist, zoologist, food scientist and agricultural engineer.

Generic skills, essential life skills and values, as well as appreciation of other cross-cutting issues have been catered for in this textbook. In line with the National Development Plan objectives of increasing sustainable production, productivity and value addition, this Agriculture textbook intends to transform the learner into a model citizen, whose technical and vocational training shall prepare and empower him or her to become a job creator rather than a job seeker.