Digital technology an opportunity for the young to venture into agriculture - Kamal Yakub

Young executives must get involved in agriculture

In an era that technology plays a pivot role in agriculture, the youth have been urged to get involved in the sector as existing farmers do not have the understanding to make use of technology for its full benefit.

Chief executive officer of Trotro Tractor, Kamal Yakub who made this call at the 20th MTN Business World Executive Breakfast Meeting said technology has made farming very easy allowing farmers to achieve more within a shorter period.

He said, “using your phone, you can request for a tractor service for a one acre, using your phone you can request for other inputs as well, using your phone you can get a combine harvester and that is easy to make farming so cool. If you used to do two days on an acre with four people, now you use 45 minutes to finish that acre so it allows you to do more”.

He added that “the farmers we have now is averagely 55-years and life expectancy in Ghana is about 61 so if we allow these people to be in the business, they will not understand what we are doing”.

He said more efforts should be put into convincing the younger generation to apply their understanding of digital technology in improving agribusiness in Ghana.

Managing Principal of Injaro Investments, Jerry Parkes also urged young business executives to get involved in agriculture as that is the only way to improve the sector faster.

He said, “we need to start seeing agribusiness as a real opportunity to make money, possibly a better opportunity than the jobs you’re doing in the office”.

He added that people will not be able to reap the full benefit of agriculture if they do not take the bold step of investing both their time and resources into the sector.

“If you’re thinking of agriculture look at it aggressively as a business opportunity and if you find the right opportunity take a bold step,” he said.



The 20th MTN Business World Executive Breakfast Meeting was on the theme “Innovative Agribusiness: Case Studies in Partnerships and Technology”