Making agriculture attractive to the youth ; The vision of national award winners
The leadership of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) has challenged itself to use its vast knowledge in agriculture and fisheries to make farming and fishing attractive and lucrative to attract the youth of this country into that venture.
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The association, which seeks to encourage the youth into agriculture and demystify the negative perception about farming, has outlined a number of measures and programmes that would help it achieve its objective.
Over the years, award winners of the National Farmers Day have been recognised for their contribution in producing to support the economy as well as feed the people of Ghana.
Previously, apart from the recognition of their efforts towards national development, little was heard about the distinguished award winners again until another national event to reward a new batch of farmers and fishermen.
Now under one umbrella, the NFFAWAG believes that a lot of transformation has taken place and, therefore, agriculture is no longer considered as punishment or a venture for the less privileged in society, and has maintained that the face of agriculture has changed from what it used to be.
The association is making conscious efforts by collaborating with the government to encourage more youth to go into agriculture. Interestingly, unlike the past where farmers were compelled to produce just anything for their survival, this time the association intimates that there is ready market for whatever it produces and that availability of markets should be the motivating factor to push many young people into agriculture.
Now that there is a fairly young person at the helm of leadership of the association, the group intends to make agriculture attractive to attract a large number of youths into their fold.
Since a section of the society has erroneous impressions about agriculture and its practitioners, the leadership of the association has instituted some policies and programmes that would serve as the roadmap in making many young people embrace agriculture as a profession.
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The association is led by its Chairman, Mr Davies Narh Korboe, the 2009 National Best Farmer, and has other key members such as Mr Ignatius Agbo - 2011 National Best Farmer; Mr Lemuel Quashie Martey, 2012 National Best Farmer and Mr A.B. Appiah, formerly of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).
The group has targeted 100 youths and 30 women across the country to be nurtured and groomed and assisted to engage in agriculture, producing export crops on pilot basis for the international market.
According to Mr Korboe, “Once the project takes off and the young farmer receives his first payment and begins to tell his/her own story, people will come to the conclusion that there is no need now to look for white collar jobs."
Besides, the leadership of the award winners will seek support and assistance from the Youth Enterprises Support (YES), the Ghana Youth Authority as well as the Youth in Agriculture, which is under MOFA.
Apart from producing for export, the group will also be expected to produce for the local market, which will also discourage people from buying fruits and vegetables from farmers who use contaminated water to cultivate their farms/gardens as well as administer unapproved chemicals to their crops, putting the health of consumers at risk.
Training for youth
The association believes that before the young farmers venture into farming, some form of training will be held for them and this will be facilitated by inviting a group of the market partners (both local and international) into the country who will apprise the selected youth of the international specifications and how they can produce to feed a particular market.
Database of lands in Ghana
The association insists that land is key in any farming project and will therefore, look at the database of all farmlands in Ghana, which will distinguish the urban methodology from the rural one. The will be registered and documented.
Improved seed/grain
The association also aims at getting improved seed/grain from some of its collaborators and building the capacity of the farmers on sound agriculture practices and if possible solicit for exchange programmes for its members to acquaint themselves with what pertains elsewhere.
It will as well ensure that apart from the tractor and plough which are common in our current agriculture work, multi-tasked machines such as combine harvesters, plant cultivators, spreaders, harrow trailers and boom sprayers have to be made available by government to support farming activities. All these are to increase crop yield.
Similarly, the fishing industry will not be left out in the association’s scheme of things as it has planned to engage the fishermen and address some of the pressing issues related to premix fuel, the provision of marine engines to power the 40 and 70 footer vessels instead of the improvised diesel engines with its questionable output.
The problem with the high cost of fishing nets as well as inferior ones is issues lingering on the minds of the national leadership of the association.
Other pertinent issues disturbing the smooth operations of the fishing industry, such as the use of dynamites, light and pair trawling, need to be addressed to improve the contribution of the fishing sector to the national economy.
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To give it the needed push and rope in all past award winners, the association has been segmented into the northern, middle and southern sectors for easy and quick resolution of problems as well as regular interaction for an efficient and effective administration.