Eric Opoku, the Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture has revealed that only 5% of youth in Ghana are engaged in agriculture.
According to the Minister-designate, it is unacceptable that only 5% of our youth is engaged in agriculture.
He added that agriculture is not attractive at all to the Ghanaian youth and therefore something must be done immediately.
Speaking at the Appointments Committee of Parliament on January 20, Eric Opoku revealed, “In Ghana, only five percent of our youth is engaged in agriculture. This is unacceptable. It means that agriculture is not attractive at all to the Ghanaian youth and therefore something must be done immediately to make agriculture attractive to the people”.
Eric Opoku further stated his ministry would create a huge market for agricultural products to give confidence to the farmers.
“First, we have to ensure that we create huge market for agricultural products to give confidence to the farmers that when they produce, there will be a market for their produce and that is why we have emphasised in our manifesto on Agri- business”, he added.
The minister-designate further revealed the need to employ agricultural more extension officers.
Eric Opoku stated, “Unfortunately for Ghana, the agricultural extension officer to farmer ratio is around 1 officer:1500 farmers…there is the need for us to employ more extension officers”.
