Youth urged to venture into agriculture for sustainable income

An agribusiness conference to ex­pose young people to job oppor­tunities that exist in the agri­cultural sector has been held in Accra under the auspices of the Master Card Foundation.

It was held in partnership with Agri-Impact Limited and the Grad­uate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) on the theme “Empowering Agrofuture Entrepreneurs.”

The conference was simultaneously held at the Universities of Ghana and Professional Studies, Accra and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and targeted young people from the age of 15 -35 years.

In an address, Abraham Safo, a Value Chain Enterprise Development Specialist for the programme, said it was important to rope in the young ones at the university, particularly those pursuing Masters programmes to understand the opportunities in the agricultural space.

According to him, this would set their minds right from the onset and disabuse their minds that agriculture was synonymous to the traditional cutlass and hoe farming full of drudg­ery, stating that job opportunities in crop insurance, banking, credit man­agement, marketing amongst others exist in the agric ecosystem.

With a target of 330,000 jobs along four agricultural value chains in the areas of rice, tomatoes, poultry and soya bean, Mr Safo said the initiative would help elevate the subject of ag­riculture to the forefront of national discourse and expose young people to the opportunities therein.

He said Agri-Impact extends support to young entrepreneurs in agriculture through capacity building training, adding that support was also extended to young entrepreneurs in the form of starter- packs, access to land, facilitating access to land, among others.

He called on the youth to see ag­riculture as a business and profitable venture out of which they could make a sustainable living.

On his part, Emmanuel Owusu, GRASAG National President, said the programme was organised to expose members to the opportunities within the agricultural value chain.

Urging the youth to take advantage of the programme, Mr Owusu said with the advent of modern technol­ogy, agriculture has taken on a new dimension which does not necessitate being on the farm to till the land.

“We want our members to know that, it was not a case of always doing an office or corporate job but you could venture into agriculture and earn sustainable income,” he said.

A chief farmer, Nana Owusu- Achiaw, said to overcome the chal­lenge of reducing purchasing power, young entre­preneurs should understand where the bulk of mon­ey goes in the scheme of things.

He urged par­ticipants to apply the FIST principle which deals with using technolo­gy for farming purposes, ren­dering services in the value chain, engaging in farm and food business among others.

 By Norman Cooper