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Okyehemaa appeals to gov’t to educate students about importance of agriculture to whip up interest in the area
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The Okyehemaa, Nana Adutwumwaa Dokua has appealed to the government and stakeholders in the Agricultural sector to educate pupils and students in the basic, secondary and tertiary schools, especially girls and women, about the importance of agriculture to whip up their interest in the area.
According to her, most of the time, pupils and students were often punished with weeding or farming, adding that many of them formed negative perception about farming and hence were discouraged from going into agriculture.
She stated that rather, weeding and farming should be encouraged as a pleasurable exercise as part of agriculture and students should be encouraged and their interest whipped up in agriculture to enable them engage in it and contribute to the development of the sector for their own benefit.
The Okyehemaa was speaking at the official launch of the 5th Women in Food and Agricultural Leadership Training Forum and the Gold in the Soil Awards in Koforidua on the theme: “Overcoming Barriers of Women in Agribusiness: The Role of Stakeholders,” was organised by Agrihouse Foundation in collaboration with Eastern Regional Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD), Eastern Regional Agricultural Directorate and National Farmers’ and Fishermen Award Winners’ Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG), the Canadian Embassy and Yara Ghana.
The forum, initiated by Agrihouse, was purposed to empower and train women in innovative ways that would feed into Ghana’s agricultural objective of achieving food security in the near future, while providing sustainable employment, creating markets and building resilience.
The Gold in the soil awards would reward women who have made significant strides in farming, and winners would be given equipment and machines to enable them improve their work for the benefit of society and country.
The Okyehemaa expressed worry over the lack of adequate jobs for the many graduates who completed universities across the country, and reiterated the need to encourage them into agriculture.
She called on government and stakeholders in the Agricultural sector to resource extension officers to go into the many schools in the country and encourage pupils and students into farming.
“They should also make it attractive to them, especially with the girl child, and give incentives to women and girls who would want to venture into agriculture,” she said.
The Okyehemaa thanked Agrihouse for such an initiative to encourage more women into farming and assured that as queen mother she would also use her platform to encourage more women into farming.
For her part, the Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyea said the forum and awards, through its sponsors Yara Ghana and Global Affairs Canada, has over the years made significant impact on improving the lives of women farmers and people with disabilities in the agricultural value chain through networking, sharing and mentoring among women-led agribusinesses, buyers, corporate entities and financial institutions.
She revealed over two thousand women farmers have benefited from the training and 75 women in agriculture including 20 persons with disability who were thriving in the area have been awarded.
She added that the Gold in the Soil Award also continued to strengthen women agribusiness enterprises whilst it motivated a paradigm shift in projecting, celebrating and recognizing women achievers in the sector.
“This year’s programme is the 5th Edition and the turn of Eastern region and would take place between July 26 and July 27,” she revealed.
From Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, Koforidua
A 24-year-old tricycle (Pragyia) rider, has been jailed three months by the Nkawie Circuit Court in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region for biting a Community Police Assistant (CPA) at Nkawie.
Abdul Aziz pleaded guilty to the charge of negligently causing harm and was convicted on his own plea.
Police Inspector Kwaku Frimpong, prosecuting told the court presided by Mr Robert Addo that, complainants in the case were officers from the Nkawie Divisional Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service.
He said on September 3, at about 8:40am, the complainants led by Chief Inspector Abedi Larbi, were on their official patrol duty to ensure safety at Nkawie township and met the convict, who was in-charge of a Pragya tricycle with registration number M-25-A-3722.
He explained that, after a careful inspection, it was detected that the convict was without licence and other required documents, so Alhassan Seidu, the CPA, was instructed to lead him to the office for the next action.
On their way to the office, the convict took a different direction, so the CPA directed him to take the right route to the police station, but he disobeyed and attacked the CPA, resulting in a struggle between them.
In the process the convict bit the CPA on the chest, so he shouted for help and some nearby youth rushed to the scene and helped him to arrest the convict.
In his caution statement, he admitted the offence and after further investigations he was charged and brought before the court. –GNA
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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the government to place all 54,985 candidates affected by the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placement exercise in schools and publish the final outcome.
The party says the government must ensure that the affected candidates secure actual school places rather than merely being allowed to access the self-placement portal.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party expressed concern about the situation facing the candidates.
The NPP said the government had announced that 53,887 of the affected candidates could use the self-placement system after initially being told that they had not qualified for secondary school.
It, however, argued that access to the portal did not guarantee that candidates would secure their preferred schools or programmes.
“Ghanaian parents and candidates will judge the resolution of the challenge by one thing only: how many of the original 54,985 are sitting in a classroom, not how many were allowed to open a website,” the statement noted.
The party said the government’s own figures showed that the country had 859,828 declared vacancies for 623,072 BECE candidates.
It explained that the main challenge was the concentration of demand in a small number of highly subscribed schools.
The NPP noted that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, while those schools had 76,417 declared vacancies.
It therefore called on the government to explore ways to improve schools with available spaces, including providing teachers, laboratories and better programmes.
The party urged the government to use the 85 private schools participating in the Free SHS programme to absorb candidates who remained without placements.
The NPP further called for clarification of the rule and pass mark used for this year’s placement exercise, saying parents were entitled to know the standard before their children sat the examination.
It urged the government to take urgent action to ensure that the affected candidates were not left behind in the transition to secondary education.
By: Jacob Aggrey
