More Jobs for Youth in Agriculture

Minister for agriculture, Dr. Afriyie Akoto, has called on Ghanaian youth to embrace the opportunities made available under the country’s Agricultural sector.

According to him, the government is embarking on new developments which aims at boosting the Horticulture under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).

Taking his turn at the Meet the Press Series held in Accra, Yesterday, the minister said government had partnered with AGRITOP, an Israeli company, to build greenhouses in three locations in the country.

The areas earmarked for this project are Dawhenya, Kasoa and Akumada. Dahwenya is the one which is up and running with a 100 units of greenhouses part of which is used to train 30 students at the time.

He also stressed that the sector cannot spend money training graduates in a specialized area without putting them into business, so in September this year, 50 of those students who are undergoing training will go to Israel to have more of the working experience and this will help our local industry.

The minister assured Ghanaians that this is going to make huge farmers out from them (students) and a big opportunity for Ghana as a whole to be able to diversify our agricultural exports by entering into the European market.

And also to Israel for eleven months and then come back with part of the seasons that they will make from the eleven months and part of our own resources to send them up to produce greenhouse vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber etc. to serve the local industry, the local market and also for export” he further stressed.

He urged the youth who perceive white collar jobs to be the best to desist from such and embrace agriculture, he has assured the youth that with this initiative more jobs will be made available.