Engage youth in agriculture — Queenmothers

The Queen Mothers Foundation has underscored the need to support and entice the youth to engage in agriculture through the right policies, access to skills, innovations and the right technologies. 

It said the youth were made to see agriculture as a form of punishment and jobs for the aged or elderly in the village, stressing that majority of the youth did not consider agriculture as a lucrative career opportunity.

The group, however, indicated that there were huge opportunities in the sector, hence the need to modernise the sector to attract young people to tackle unemployment and food insecurity.

Event

The Founder and Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, made the call during the media launch of the sixth edition of the Gathering of the Royals organised by Agri House Foundation in Accra.

The event, scheduled to take place on February 29 this year, is expected to bring together over 300 queenmothers and women in agriculture from across the 16 regions.

Dubbed “Seeds of Change: Cultivating Gender Equality in Agriculture and Honouring Women’s Advancement”, it is expected to delve into issues on gender and its influence in advancing and building sustainable women farmers across the regions.

Concept

The agricultural sector is considered the backbone and wealth of the Ghanaian economy but the involvement and participation of the country’s growing youth in productive and profitable agribusinesses is seen to be low.

Ms Akyaa Akosa underscored the need to put in place policies that would encourage the financial sector to support the agricultural sector to inspire and attract the youth and other professionals who would want to go into farming.

Right direction

In an interview, Ms Akyaa Akosa said the foundation had implemented a number of interventions that had attracted and benefited a lot of the youth in agribusiness.

The initiative, she said, would create career opportunities for students right from school and improve economic growth.

“So we’ve established a boot camp that has empowered over 6,000 students.

Some of the students who pass through the project every year have been able to gain good employment in agribusinesses, while others have been able to establish themselves through our support with seed capitals and inputs as well,” she added.

She said the foundation over the past six years had contributed its quota to the growth and development of agribusiness and urged the government to strengthen its working relations with the foundation to make more impact.

“We have been able to support a number of the queenmothers with seeds and other startups.

 So with this we've been able to attract more people to venture into agriculture, reducing some of the social vices such as teenage pregnancy and robbery in the country,” she added.

She underscored the need to motivate and empower the youth through skill training, financial services, access to technology and innovation, as well as motivation from successful start-ups.

The Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation said the event being held in an election year is very symbolic and crucial to the agribusiness sector, hence the need to ensure peace so farmers can cultivate a peaceful environment to enhance economic growth.

She said the foundation desired a country of cooperation and the development of sustainable farming, with peace and security as its bedrock. She therefore expressed the hope to work together with other stakeholders to ensure peace at all levels and in the farming communities.

Commitment

The Vice-President of the Queen Mothers Foundation, Nana Kobiwaa Acquah, said the queenmothers were committed to working with Agrihouse Foundation to create an inclusive, innovative, community-driven change and a collaborative environment.

She said the collaboration would help in the exchange of ideas and leverage their knowledge and expertise to find innovative solutions that can transform the agricultural sector in their communities and the country at large.

“Let's work together to revolutionise the agricultural sector in Ghana and build a brighter future for all,” she added.