Agriculture is Ghana's largest employer. It feeds us.
It employs millions of our youth.
Yet, it is not among our top five fastest-growing sectors.
That troubling paradox was laid bare in Accra last Wednesday by Executive Coach and Co-founder of the Springboard Roadshow Foundation, Rev. Albert Ocran.
Speaking at the Impact Leaders Breakfast on the theme: "Leading Together with Global Insight for Local Impact", Rev. Ocran said urgent action was needed to remove the bottlenecks stifling agriculture and agribusiness for Ghana to be competitive globally.
He is absolutely right. And the time to act is now. Agriculture, food and agribusiness rank among the two fastest-growing industries in Africa, but they do not feature among Ghana's top five fastest-growing sectors.
Our fastest-growing sectors in the first quarter of this year were Information and Communications Technology (ICT), up 25 per cent; transport, storage and logistics, with 13 per cent growth; trade and repair of vehicles, with nine per cent growth, contributing 14.8 per cent to the economy; plus mining and quarrying and oil and gas.
This is not to say ICT and logistics growth is bad.
It is excellent. It shows that our country is modernising. But how can the sector that employs over 40 per cent of our workforce be growing slower than those that employ far fewer?
The answer lies in the bottlenecks.
Our farmers still lack guaranteed markets.
Our value chains are broken.
Our post-harvest losses are still around 30 per cent for perishables.
Our access to finance is expensive and short term.
Our extension services are weak.
Our irrigation covers less than two per cent of arable land.
Until we fix these, agriculture will remain large but not dynamic — big in numbers, small in productivity.
Lessons from Kenya and Morocco can guide us and influence policy.
In Kenya, a tea farm is a plantation, a factory, a tourist lodge, a brand, and an export earner.
In Morocco, argan oil is cosmetics, food, tourism, and women's cooperatives.
In Ghana, we have cocoa, but we export about 70 per cent of the crop in its raw form.
We have mango, but we import mango juice.
We have tomatoes, but we import tomato paste.
We have palm, but we import vegetable oil.
We have not built the value chains.
We produce raw materials and import finished products.
That is colonial economics in 2026.
What Ghana needs is to turn farms into experiences, raw crops into brands, and surplus into industry.
Imagine a cocoa farm in Assin Fosu that is also an eco-lodge where tourists pay to see chocolate made.
Imagine a rice farm in the Volta Region that mills, packages, and supplies every hotel breakfast in Accra.
That is how we create jobs for youth and keep wealth in rural communities.
If we want agriculture to grow at 15 per cent like ICT, we must professionalise it.
Government must prioritise feeder roads, cold chain, irrigation, and affordable finance for agribusiness.
We need district-level agribusiness parks where youth can access processing machines, packaging, and certification on a pay-as-you-go basis.
We must study successful models from other countries and adapt them.
Not copy blindly. Adapt.
Our leaders need to understand the country's demographics, communities and development needs before introducing solutions developed elsewhere.
A Kenyan tea tourism model must be adapted to Ghanaian cocoa culture and land tenure.
We must embrace technology ethically.
For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing business.
AI for weather forecasting, for pricing, and for disease detection in crops can make farming profitable.
Our youth must be trained for this.
Our country has opportunities in agriculture, but unlocking them requires collaboration among government, businesses, investors, traditional leaders, and young people. Government cannot do it alone.
The private sector cannot do it alone.
Chiefs who control 80 per cent of land must be at the table.
Investors who control capital must be at the table.
Young people who will farm with drones must be at the table.
Agriculture should not be what we fall back on when white-collar jobs fail.
It should be what we run to because it is profitable, modern, and globally competitive.
The data is clear. Africa's food market will be worth $1 trillion by 2030.
Ghana can either be a major player or a major importer.
Rev. Ocran has diagnosed the problem.
The ball is now in our court — to remove the bottlenecks and let agriculture lead again.
