Agricultural Sector Has Potential And The Youth Must Get Involved—Afriyie Ankrah


The Minister for Youth and Sport, AfriyieAnkrah has urged Ghanaian Youth to see the Agricultural sector as a lucrative entity for business since there are a lot of potentials in the sector.

According to him the era where the Agricultural sector is perceived to be for those who have not been to school before is over and the new generation must see it as such.

Mr. Ankrah calls on the Youth to start thinking of venturing into the Agricultural sector after schoolsince it is the only way to bridge the unemployment gap in the country.

The Youth and Sport Minister was speaking at the Ghana Youth Agrifair and Youth in Agriculture stakeholders’ forum in Accra.

The forum forms part of the closing activities of the year-long African Union (AU) at 50 celebrations, coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in partnership with the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG).

The forum, which was under the theme: ‘Promoting Youth in Agriculture: It is time to walk the talk’ seeks to interrogate issues aimed at realizing the potential of the agricultural sector as the vehicle for youth development and Africa’s economic transformation.

The Minister averred that the populations into farming are ageing and it is about time the educated youth take the mantle from them to mechanize the sector for higher yield.

Dr. Abu Sakara, Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Presidential Candidate in 2012 has challenged the youth to change their perception about agriculture because Agriculture production is key in the transformation of the economy.

Dr.Sakara said the reason why the nation was not making progress in agriculture was because of the systems and the level of intervention in the sector, which was very low.

He said Africa’s current food market, currently standing at $313 billion, is expected to grow to $1 trillion in 2030, which the youth must take advantage of.

He called on government to leverage the amount of investments that goes into the agriculture sector in order to attract the youth to it

He urged the government to solve the systemic problems that tend to hinder the activities of small scale farmers for them to be productive, and to ensure the use the mobile platforms to engage the youth more and to attract them into agriculture.

The forum was officially opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hannah Tetteh, with support from the Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey.

Comments:
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.