Akufo-Addo urges youth to venture into agriculture

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has opened the Presidential Conference on Youth in Agriculture with a call on the Ghanaian youth to take advantage of the incentive packages inherent in the program to venture into agriculture as another job creation avenue.

The program is a collaboration between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).

Delivering his keynote address at the Conference to formally launch the program on Wednesday, the President noted that youth unemployment was a challenge to the nation and the government was committed to addressing the scourge among the youth through innovative interventions like the agriculture programme.

He therefore urged the youth to rally around the initiative to form co-operatives and partnerships to derive the needed benefits to accrue from the implementation of the programme.

He explained that with the off-taker arrangement and the incentive packages spelt out in the initiative, there was no excuse on the part of the youth not to venture into Agriculture.

He predicted that successful implementation of the programme could lead to food supply increase and a decline in food cost in Ghana and expressed the hope that Ghana would witness a drastic reduction in food inflation to a single digit by the end of his tenure in office.

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, also noted that the Ministry remained resolute in exploring various avenues of addressing youth unemployment and Agriculture holds promise in that regard.

He explained that one of the quickest solutions to addressing unemployment was to harness agriculture because studies had revealed that Agriculture was one sector area that was not well tapped to derive the benefits of jobs creation among the youth.

The Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, Mr. Kofi Baah Agyepong, encouraged the youth of Ghana interested in Agriculture.

He explained that the detailed incentive packages were to motivate the young farmers to venture into Agriculture and address the stigma faced by young graduates desirous to go into farming.

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