Agriculture still attractive; youth must embrace it – Abraham Odoom

Abraham Dwuma Odoom, an Agribusiness expert, has called on Ghanaian youth to prioritize agriculture and see it as a lucrative business venture, which has the potential to transform their lives.

He said it was important for the youth to take advantage of the agricultural initiatives and economic enclaves which were being created by government and other private firms, to amass wealth for themselves without having to start farming from scratch.

Mr. Odoom who was speaking at the Youth in Agribusiness Festival 2024 in Kumasi, said some of these initiatives already had factors of production for farming such as land, access to water, ultra-modern implements, planting materials and others, which often posed challenges to the youth who want to start farming.

With some of these things already in place, what was needed was for interested people to sign on to these policy initiatives to have access to these factors to start their businesses.

The two-day programme, which was held under the theme “Agribusiness Modernisation: Tool for Sustainable Youth Employment in Ghana,” was organised by the John A. Kufuor Foundation.

Mr. Odoom said if most Ghanaians were to go into modern agriculture, there would be a stable economy and reduction in the over-reliance on imported goods into the country.

He used the occasion to call for consensus on the unrestrained way of using pesticides in farms in Ghana, adding that, that over-usages of pesticides were dangerous to one’s health and there was need for deliberate efforts to control it.

Mr. Kwasi Nyamekye, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), expressed worry at the increasing rate at which Ghanaians had developed taste for foreign products.

Citing the poultry industry alone, he said it was an avenue that employed a lot of people, but indigenes were not patronising the local poultry products, giving excuses that the products were very expensive.

Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, Chief Executive Officer of the John A. Kufuor Foundation, said the rationale for the programme was to prioritise the creation of platforms for Ghanaian youth to embrace the vast opportunities in the agricultural sector.

He said Ghana’s agricultural sector had largely been dominated by the elderly who were steadily leaving the working arenas and it was high time the youth took up such roles and responsibilities to drive Ghana’s socio-economic agenda.

Prof. Agyeman-Duah said with the existence of modern technologies in farming, it had become imperative that the youth embraced such opportunities to reduce unemployment in the country.