The youth have been urged to venture into farming for wealth creation and the promotion of food security in the country.
Describing the sector as profitable, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Truth Farms (TTF), a subsidiary of The Truth Group of Companies, Mr Mohammed Ayaba, who gave the advice in an interview with the Ghanaian Timesencouraged the populace to see farming as a business capable of alleviating poverty.
He bemoaned the unwillingness of most Ghanaian youth to take up farming despite the venture being capable of putting one on the path of financial freedom.
According to him, young people usually showed no interest in farming due to the assumption that the venture was unprofitable, adding that policies must be put in place to make agriculture very attractive to the teeming unemployed youth.
He said “Many people, especially the youth in this country do not appreciate the significance of farming as a source of income, they see it as a difficult task which hardly yields profit which is not true.
Instead of staying at home for years after graduating from the university, waiting for white collar jobs, get a parcel of land somewhere and start planting something and see the end result.”
Recounting his days as a beginner, he indicated that like every other job, farming was not easy but through hard work and resilience, he now owned acres of farm lands with different crops, including plantain and cashew.
Successful farming operations, Mr Ayaba said, were also based on diligent planning and urged persons who were already pursuing farming to remain committed to the practice.
In furtherance, the business man mentioned that getting the right farming equipment to boost yield was also very important, adding that when farm machinery, lands and loans without interest specifically for investment in farming, are easily made available to the public, more people would begin to develop interest to pursue farming.
Throwing more light on the advantages of farming, he explained that when given the required attention, more food and animal products would be locally produced, reducing the country’s overreliance on other countries for animal and poultry products and other food items.
This, he said, would also go a long way to promote rural prosperity as demand for food items from rural farming communities would increase.
Mr Ayaba also encouraged persons who were already in farming to do more research and adopt new methods of practising safe farming to boost yields and prevent post harvest loss.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
