Government urged to promote fish farming to create jobs

Mr Benjamin Blackie Forson, an agriculturist, has called on the government to promote aquaculture to help reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Adauso in the Kwahu Afram Plains South District of the Eastern Region, he described fish farming as a lucrative business in the agriculture sector, which when produced on large scale could create jobs for the youth in the area and the country at large.

He said support from the government and other corporate bodies would help fish farmers to produce on large scale to help create employment and improve on their livelihoods.

Mr Forson expressed concern about the low level of practical training for students of agriculture in tertiary institutions and suggested the establishment of agricultural training centres by all district and municipal assemblies to offer practical training in fish farming to students and young people.

He used the opportunity to commend the Skyfox Limited, a fish farming company at Kwahu Afram Plains South, for engaging women and the youth in aquaculture and helping to create jobs.

The company has provided over ten fish ponds and 600 acres of irrigation lands to communities in the area to empower women and the youth in agriculture in line with the government’s “One District, One Factory”, ‘Planting for Food and Jobs and the ‘Youth in Agriculture’ policies.