Youth urged to venture into marketing of agric products
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, has called on the youth to venture into the marketing of agricultural products in order to bring the needed change to the sector.
Advertisement
He said farm products were getting rotten on the farms because most people were into production, with just a few into marketing the produce.
Opening the First National Agriculture Summit on the theme “Further unlocking the Ghanaian Agricultural Sector: the role of the youth and women” in Accra yesterday, the minister said Ghana remained largely an agricultural economy with 56 per cent of the population employed mainly as smallholder farmers.
Improve agric marketing
He said there was, therefore, the need for the government and stakeholders to lead the way by moving agriculture to a market economy.
He said women played a very important role in the socio-economic development of the country and they needed to be involved in the agricultural value chain in order to make the needed impact on the sector.
For her part, the Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Ms Sherry Ayittey, appealed to the banks to offer soft loans to the youth who were eager to venture into agriculture.
Young graduates
She said most a time young graduates came to her office with the complaint that they needed money to start fish farming but none of the banks were willing to offer them loans.
Ms Ayittey said there was a lot of potential in the agricultural sector and there was the need to create an opportunity for a value chain addition in order to attract more youth into the sector.
The General Manager of agricultural, Ms Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, said most farmers in Ghana were over 55 years old and life expectancy averaged between 50 and 60 years, meaning that if the trend was not reversed, it could spell doom for sustainable production.
Other Trending Stories
She said it was for this reason that the summit would revolve around four significant areas concerning the youth and women in agriculture.
Areas of focus
She mentioned some of the areas of focus as new innovations and technologies in agriculture and breeding the next generation of agric entrepreneurs: the role of investment financing and insurance.
Ms Akosa said the country relied heavily on imported food to feed its growing population and reversing this trend would mean that the youth must take the mantle and venture into agriculture.
“There is a lot of potential in the agricultural sector for the youth and women, but it is about identifying the right opportunities. The youth and women are strategic to the success of any effort to boost Ghana’s food production,” she said.