Ghanaians have been asked to channel their interest and resources into agriculture to improve effective youth participation in that sector.
The call was made by the Central Region Secretariat of the National Youth Authority (NYA), at a forum to mark the International Youth Day in Cape Coast.
The Day is observed on August 12, every year to address cultural and legal issues affecting the youth and to celebrate the exploits and contribution of young people across the World.
This year’s edition was marked under the theme: “Transforming food systems -youth innovation for human and planetary health”.
The Authority, said statistics showed that the ages of most farmers were between 55 to 60, with a life expectancy of 60 years, and that was a great danger to national food security, and as such the youth should be encouraged to salvage the situation.
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Mr. Emmanuel Ofosu Annin, the Regional Director of NYA, indicated that food security was an integral component in the lives of humans and there was the need for the youth to venture into the sector with all seriousness.
He underscored the need for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to consider including agriculture as a sole subject in their curriculum for especially Junior High Schools (JHS) to ignite their interest in the sector at a tender age.
Dr. Peter Omega, the Central Regional Director of Agriculture, stated that the focus was now on healthy diet and nutrition, because globally, about 690 million people go to bed hungry, while three billion people cannot afford healthy diets.
He said food systems were not sustainable because of greenhouse gases, uncontrollable depletion of natural resources including lands, water, energy, loss of agri-biodiversity and a host of others.
The Director noted that, strategies outlined by the Government in transforming the way food was produced and consumed focused on ensuring access to safe food for all through boosting agricultural production.
He urged the youth to actively participate in the different kinds of farming because their engagements in high value markets both domestic and global offered new and advanced opportunities.
“There is now a consensus in Ghana on the need for increased investment in agricultural infrastructure for growth and development and its productivity is driven by adoption of new technology, which would be to your advantage,” he added.
Dr. Omega said the Youth in Agriculture programme, planting for food and jobs, planting for export and rural development, were initiated by the Government to support the dreams of the youth and curb the migration of the active youth in search of greener pastures.
The programmes, which provided beneficiaries with subsidized agro-inputs including fertilizers, coconut, oil palm, mango, seedlings, adequate post-harvest and the creation of potential market avenue for produce, are expected to create at least three million jobs in the sector.
“The expectation of transforming food systems is achievable depending on proper targeting of the youth, it is absolutely necessary to give the needed attention to promoting youth in agriculture programmes,” he further added.
For his part, Mr. Isaac Egyir, the 2020 Best Farmer in Twifo Atti-Morkwa, encouraged the youth to venture into the sector, because it was lucrative and was highly capable of taking care of them.
“You only have to give yourself sometime, it takes time to yield bountifully and slow to die off, you will surely make it with agriculture because it is indeed a business,” he encouraged them.
He further said food was a crucial part of human existence and it took about 60 per cent of everybody’s monthly expenses, adding that the world was dependent on farmers to produce.
