Welcome to the School of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Zambia. The school has been in existence since 1971 with our mandate neatly aligned with the university’s mission of providing relevant higher education through teaching, research and community service. On our website, you will find information about the various departments in the school, current undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on offer, academic and non-academic members of staff working in the school, past and on-going research activities and other activities where we are closely engaged with the community on agricultural related issues. 
Currently, the school comprises five (5) departments as follows: Agricultural Economics and Extension, Animal Science, Food Science and Nutrition, Plant Science; and Land Management. All the five departments offer both undergraduate and post-graduate level programmes in the relevant disciplines. We have seven main five-year undergraduate programmes (BSc. Agricultural Sciences, BSc. Agronomy, B. Food Science and Technology, BSc. Agricultural Economics, BSc. Agricultural Extension, BSc. Human Nutrition and BSc. Education with Agriculture Science). The BSc. Agricultural Sciences degree is further subdivided into three options—Animal Science, Plant Science and Land Management. The number of post-graduate programmes we offer has increased over the years. At present, we have ten (10) MSc./postgraduate diploma programmes and about six (6) PhD degree programmes that are primarily by research. In general, our school has over the years played a critical role in the development of human resource for the agricultural and other related sectors. Our graduates are exceptionally employable, and are placed within a variety of sectors and in senior positions around Zambia and beyond.
Our students mainly come from within Zambia but we have and have had a modest number of international students particularly from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. We have slightly over 400 undergraduate students, 100 masters-level students and 10 active PhD students in the various disciplines offered by our departments. We also have a highly qualified team of academic (56), technical (20) and administrative (10) staff positioned in our five departments.
In our quest to provide excellent research outputs, both technical and academic members of staff are involved in a number of collaborative research partnerships with local and international organisations. Our collaborators include government institutions, universities, bilateral and multilateral institutions, and farmer organisations. Our researchers are involved in more than 30 collaborative research projects that include the following topical issues:
- Value chain analysis
- Impact evaluation of agricultural interventions
- Development of pasture and fodder crops for improved livestock production
- Assessment of conservation farming techniques for integrated crop and livestock
- Food product development and issues at the nexus of improved nutrition security
- Climate change and agriculture
- Land management
- Plant breeding and varietal development
To ensure we provide cutting edge training and research, we have the following facilities:
- Field Station – On campus (poultry, piggery, fish pond, dairy animals, goats, demonstration plots, orchard, etc.)
- Laboratories – On campus (Plant Science, Soil chemistry, Soil physics, Plant molecular, tissue culture, food chemistry & Nutrition, Animal nutrition, Animal physiology)
- Agricultural Training Demonstration Centre (ATDC) – Off-campus
The school is also involved in a number of outreach communities, which include the following:
- Training small scale farmers from ATDC
- Training of farmers in businesses and entrepreneurship e.g. African Economics Research Consortium (AERC) sponsored 50 farmers for training
- Student outreach programme to case study Agribusiness firms e.g. ZANACO
- Training of farmers in soil fertility management
- Mushroom production
For prospective students, I hope that you find the information on our website useful and that it encourages you to apply to study any of the disciplines offered by our school at UNZA. To potential research collaborators and other partners, we would like to encourage you to contact my office or respective departments in our school in case you are interested in partnering with us.
Professor Thomson H. Kalinda
- Phone: +26 021 125 0587
- Telefax: +260 211 293
- Email: dean-agric@unza.zm
- Department:
- Office:
- Skype:
