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Chris Joughin is a second year student in agricultural engineering at IT Tralee in Co Kerry. What makes him different from the rest of his class is that before starting this course, he worked as a manager on a 17,000ha tobacco, vegetable and livestock farm in his home country, Zimbabwe.
You're up three or four times a night checking tobacco
Chris said that life on his farm in southern Africa is busy: "You're up three or four times a night checking tobacco, you're organising workforce and your main job as a manager is enforcing that all the guys do what they need to do."
Local conditions do not make this easy: "We don't often have a lot of electricity, you can't send emails to other people so you get in a car and you drive the whole way across the farm to tell somebody something."
Listen to the full interview with Chris in our podcast below:
One of the challenges on Chris's farm is to manage machinery and spare parts. That's why he has come to Ireland to study agricultural engineering. He says this country has a strong reputation for its connections between farming and industry.
"Now that I'm learning about tractors and what they require, I can come in with all that information and provide it for people who have none of it there," he said.
Miniature tractor
While Chris has been enjoying his time in Ireland a lot, feeling welcomed and "just like at home", there's one thing he has not got used to yet: "It's a bit wet!"
He is taking part in a project supported by the Irish Farmers Journal to design a miniature tractor that would be safe for children to operate – watch this space for more information about this soon.
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