GOVERNMENT TARGETS AGRIC SECTOR AS MAJOR AVENUE FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT


GOVERNMENT TARGETS AGRIC SECTOR AS MAJOR AVENUE FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

BY PETER ATOGEWE WEDAM                                   September 04, 2012
AG.PRO-UE/RCC

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo has announced that, government’s Better Ghana Agenda which is reflected in national development planning has identified Agriculture as one of the focal socio-economic areas to be promoted for sustainable development. He emphasized that the Medium – Term National Development Framework which is contained in the national development plan and titled “Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) 2O1O – 2013”, devotes its chapter four to Accelerated Agricultural Modernisation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management.

Mr. Woyongo made the announcement in a keynote address read for him by his Deputy, Mrs. Lucy Awuni at the 24th Annual General Conference of the Agricultural Educators and Trainers Association of Ghana [AETAG] being in Bolgatanga under the theme “the relevance of agricultural education and training in youth employment, Ghana”. AETAG is a professional association of Agriculture Teachers at all educational levels and other persons, preparing for and or interested in promoting Agricultural education and technology in Ghana.

The regional minister explained that the Accelerated Agricultural Modernisation plan is an evidence-based scheme to address the key challenges in the sector. He noted that the current characteristics of the agricultural sector in Ghana include subsistence production, non-responsiveness to the industrial and service sub-sectors, dominated by women labour, low level of technology and productivity, low income and un-competitiveness in production, processing and distribution.

According to Mr. Woyongo, the main focus of agricultural development in the medium term is therefore to accelerate the modernization of agriculture which is being done through the implementation of the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy (FASDEP II) and the investment component plan dubbed Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) to ensure effective linkage between agriculture and industry.

The overriding objective of the Accelerated Agricultural Modernisation plan he further explained, is to transform Ghana’s economy through food security, job creation, increased earnings from exportation of agricultural commodities and industrial raw material production for processing into value-added products which he observed, will contribute to rural development and poverty reduction.

Mr. Woyongo said research evidence shows that Ghana’s agricultural labour force is dominated by the aged implying that the country’s young people shun agricultural production where a great potential exists for youth employment. For instance, the annual food import bill of Ghana was pegged around one billion US dollars as reported by MOFA in 2011 as a result of reasons such as the youth’s refusal to venture into agriculture to produce more for both domestic consumption and foreign export.

He called on AETAG members to dialogue with authorities in order to include in the formal education system vocational agricultural skills training at all the terminal levels of the education system.

The National President of AETAG, Mr. Isaac Asiegbor in his speech said conference serves as a platform to spread information about AETAG and promote its membership drive while it further creates an opportunity for members to take stock of activities over the past year and plan for the future. In addition, in-service training will be offered on some new and difficult–to-teach contents of agriculture in Ghanaian educational system.

 According to the AETAG President, frequent policy shifts within the past 25 years saw Ghana change her Pre-Tertiary Education policies three times occurring in 1987, 1994 and 2007/2008 noting that, these policy changes affected Agriculture teaching negatively at the  Basic Education, Second Cycle Education and Teacher Education levels.

Mr. Asiegbor therefore said the annual general conference creates the grounds for the association to express its views on issues such as frequent policy shifts and other matters arising from the implementation of Agricultural Education and Training policies and programmes in the country stressing that “the overriding goal is for us to find ways of promoting agricultural education and training for effective youth employment”.

The Upper East Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agricultrue, Mr. Cletus Achaab in a speech for him called for a social-engineering programme in agriculture in the country’s school system which will ginger up the youth to develop interest in agriculture.




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