Mrs Anita Obo Love Amissah, the Municipal Chief Executive for Awutu-Senya East, has dispelled the notion that agriculture was the preserve of the aged and unlettered.
She has, therefore, admonished the youth, particularly graduates clamouring for white colour jobs, to venture into the sector as it had become more attractive in the wake of the Planting for Food and Jobs policy.
“We are mostly looking for white-collar jobs and so we roam about with our applications without success. Won’t it be better for us if we find a place to farm? she asked.
“We are supposed to eat what we grow and grow what we eat because that is healthy. I am pleading with the youth; you don’t always have to go about looking for an office job,” she counselled.
Mrs Amissah was speaking at the municipality’s celebration of the 37th annual Farmers’ Day on the theme: “Planting for Food and Jobs: Consolidating Food Systems in Ghana.”
Thirteen farmers, including a 70-year-old man, were awarded for distinguishing themselves.
A 65-year-old Madam Aku Adukpo emerged overall best farmer of the municipality and received among others, a 1,500-litre water storage tank, a deep freezer, a TV set, a spraying machine, boots, cutlass, some containers of agrochemicals and hand gloves
MCE observed that agriculture had been the economic backbone of Ghana for ages and still possessed a great potential to employ the youth and generate a lot of revenue.
She explained, for instance, that government’s Planting for Food and Jobs initiative was purposely designed and tailored to address specific needs in a bid to facilitate the transformation of Ghana’s agriculture sector.
“I want to take this opportunity to assure you that under the Planting for Food and Jobs, the assembly is more than ready, through the agric director to help you build your business,” she stated.
Mrs Amissah further called on the investors to invest in agriculture to catalyse the growth of the sector.
“Today, the focus is to have a paradigm shift of the agriculture sector and to view it as a business that responds to the economic growth of the country and not just agriculture for the conventional purpose of farming to feed the household,” she noted.
This year’s national event, aimed at appreciating farmers and fishers, would be held in the Central Regional capital, Cape Coast on Friday, December 3.