Accra, Ghana, March 12, 2019//-Ghana according to the government is poised in building a society beyond aid; and the wheel to that noble end is agriculture.
Last year, while addressing a gathering of policy makers and implementers, businessmen along the agricultural value chain, research institutions, and other key actors in the agricultural sector – The 34th Annual National Farmers’ Day Celebration, President Akufo-Addo said: “We have to take bold decisions, underpinned by strong political will, to move away from practice of business as usual, to innovative and results-driven approach of doing things in the sector.
It requires a paradigm shift from production-based to business-oriented agriculture, which promotes value chain development and entrepreneurship. The agenda of transforming agriculture calls for investing our resources in critical areas of the sector, with a view to stimulating growth on a sustainable basis”
He explained: “Government is doing everything possible to put agriculture on the path of transformation. Since assuming office, we have left no one in doubt about the importance of agriculture as one of the cogs for accelerating economic growth. It is also important to put on record that Ghana’s agriculture was in a state of decline when I became President of the Republic.”
“Prior to 2017, the performance of the sector had been erratic, recording a growth rate of 0.8% in 2011, one of the lowest in modern times. It improved, albeit slightly, to 3.1% in 2016 and that told no better story.
This growth pattern was a reflection of a lack of prioritisation and support for the agricultural sector by the previous Government. Their neglect of agriculture found expression in low farm yields, high post-harvest losses, low level of mechanisation, poorly motivated and low numbers of extension officers, largely unavailable marketing infrastructure, weak linkages to other sectors, and a general lack of access to agric financing”, he said.
The President made it clear that: “Our policies and interventions would encompass the full agricultural value chain and create additional businesses and job opportunities in the areas of storage, transport, processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural produce, all of which would ensure that our farmers and fisher folk earn higher incomes”.
According to industry operators if there is to be any paradigm shift from business as usual then it has to be to the advantage of agribusiness.
Agribusiness is a major sector where jobs could be created for the teeming unemployed youth. Agricultural business, also known as agribusiness, is the farming, management, production, and marketing of agricultural commodities, such as livestock and crops.
The agricultural business field includes resource management, farming, conservation, ranching, and sales. As technology has progressed and markets have become increasingly global, agricultural business has developed to meet and solve high-tech farming needs and problems.
Experts say: “Modern farming, including raising crops for food and fuel, and raising animals for food, wool, and more, is a complex industry. As farmers learn to compete and remain viable in a global marketplace, they draw upon business principles and a complex network of agriculture and business professionals”
“This includes taking advantage of new advances in farming, such as bioengineering, mechanisation, and new breeding practices, deciding how to sell crops, whether locally or on a commodities exchange, and managing and insuring land in the most profitable manner.
As an agricultural business professional, you might work in any of these areas, either as a farmer or as a business professional supporting farmers”
While the term agricultural business is sometimes shortened to agribusiness, it is worth noting that agribusiness can sometimes have a different meaning. Large organizations that purchase crops or other farming products from farmers are often referred to as agribusinesses; and it is these agribusinesses that produce the products at grocery stores.
The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics notes that it has become increasingly important to have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree to become an agricultural business professional, especially a farmer, farm manager, or ranch manager.
These degrees can help prepare one for a variety of career options in the fields of insurance, banking and financing, land and livestock appraisals, farming equipment sales, marketing, farm management, and agricultural law.
To stakeholders like Ms Alberta Akorsah, Chief Executive Officer of the Agrihouse Foundation said: “Agriculture has suffered neglect over the years primarily due to the reluctance of the vibrant Ghanaian youth to look in the direction of agriculture even though the sector clearly has the potential to gainfully employ and put the youth on the path to socio-economic progress”
Agrihouse Foundation is a non-governmental agricultural capacity building institution with a special focus on the promotion of changing the perception of agriculture through tactical programs and initiatives for students, women, farmers, and the entire actors in the food value chain.
Miss Alberta Akorsah said the focus of the program is towards the preparing and building of several agribusinesses and leaders at the events to change the unhelpful perception of agriculture and also educate the youth on how to build a vibrant agribusiness through planning, rebranding, integrated communications, financing and investment, ICT, among others.
Agribusiness is such that the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Special Programme on “Youth employment: enabling decent agriculture and agribusiness jobs” has come out with three components: Mapping, knowledge generation and sharing for evidence-based policy and programme development; Capacity development and institutional strengthening to build systemic capacities for youth employment in agriculture and agribusiness; and, Support to the upscaling of successful approaches through programme formulation and the facilitation of multi-stakeholder partnerships.
On the issue of policy framework for youth employment in agriculture the FAO holds that policies for the youth should not be formulated without the total involvement of the youth. Policies must be developed on access to land, registration and certification of products, market access and importation of cheap products into African countries.
Opportunities abound in the agricultural sector particularly, in the field of agribusiness and it behoves on the youth to begin to explore their immediate environments for opportunities in the agricultural sector and to take advantage of these opportunities to enhance their socio-economic wellbeing.
As the Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Mr. Emmanuel Sin-yet Asigri puts it “the financial drain on the economy as a result of imports of such staples as rice, wheat, sugar, poultry and in some instances vegetables, could be a thing of the past if majority of our youth, the most productive labour force of the country would venture into agriculture and take advantage of the government’s worthy interventions”.
By Oppong Baah, African Eye Report
