As part of efforts to whip up interest of the youth onto into agriculture as a source of livelihood, the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the National Youth Authority (NYA) has secured 71 acres of farmlands in 12 districts under the “Youth in Agriculture as Livelihood and Empowerment” flagship programme.
The programme is purposely targeted at economically supporting some 146 direct beneficiaries who are young farmers, and over 500 indirect beneficiaries through the agribusiness value chain.
Addressing participants at a ‘You in Agriculture Training’ programme at the Kumasi Youth Center situated at Ahinsan Estate last Friday, the Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Rev. John Manu, stated that gone were the days when agriculture (farming) was regarded as a business for dropouts.
Rev. Manu said all the agriculture technologies, especially the greenhouse technology, have been introduced to make farming comfortable and lucrative for the youth.
The MOFA Director assured the trainees that the government had put the necessary structures in place for the programme, and it was left with the youth to take advantage of the opportunity in order to create wealth for themselves.
Mr. George Orwell Amponsah, the NYA Regional Director, explained that the regional outfit had embarked on encouraging, training and supporting young people to go into agribusinesses like fish farming, ginger, rice, maize, pineapple, cassava, plantain, and livestock productions.
He said the 64 trainees were selected from the NYA’s various farm-based youth groups from the 12 districts where the authority acquired lands for the programme take off, and was grateful to the various stakeholders, particularly the Agriculture Ministry and traditional rulers, for offering their expertise and providing lands.
The Regional Agriculture Extension Officer, Mr. Gregory Osei Bonsu, who facilitated the training, demonstrated the possibility of earning about GH¢2,000.00 fortnightly from the harvest of cocoyam leaves (kontomire) on an acre of cocoyam farm without distorting the photosynthesis of the crop, if the farmer followed the right agricultural technology.
Mr. Osei Bonsu, who is a farmer himself, buttressed the point that farming is a lucrative business now, unlike in the past, and admonished the youth to take it up as a profession.
Dr. Felix Kwame Yeboah, an interdisciplinary researcher and an Assistant Professor of the International Development at Michigan State University, who also facilitated via zoom, explained that the ‘Youth in Agriculture Training’ programme was important because the youth needed the technical know-how in agriculture in order to maximise per hectare yields, because the country’s population would continue to increase against land size, which is permanently inelastic.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey, Kumasi
The post Ashanti NYA woos youth into agriculture appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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