Agric Minister interacts with Ghanaian students in Czech Republic

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto has encouraged Ghanaian students studying in the Czech Republic to return home after school to help build the country.

He told the students that opportunities in the agricultural sector abound and therefore urged those interested in agribusiness to take advantage after school.

Dr Akoto was interacting with a section of Ghanaian students in the Mendelova University in Brno in the Czech Republic during an official visit to that country.

The Minister, who was leading a Ghanaian delegation to the TECHAGRO 2018 in Brno, the Czech Republic, was happy that most of the Ghanaian students in the university were studying in the various areas of agriculture and development studies.

He took the students through the evolution of agriculture in Ghana and how cocoa became the cash crop of the country.

Dr Akoto explained that over the years, successive governments had over relied on cocoa as the major cash crop to the neglect of others.

He said in spite of that, the farmers continued to use the traditional seeds, which had led to low production as compared to other counties.

The Minister told the students that Ghanaian crop scientists had developed high yielding variety of all crops including the cocoa, which could more than triple what was being realised.

Dr Akoto explained that it was to address the low productivity that the government was encouraging the use of improved seeds and also 50 per cent subsidies on inputs in order to boost their productivity.

He told the students that apart from helping the farmers to improve the production of cocoa, government was also looking at diversifying the cash crop production in the country.

Dr Akoto encouraged the students to take to agriculture free school assuring them that government was ready to assist them to set up.