Planting For Foods And Jobs: 60,000 Youth To Benefit Under YEA

Government intends to train and equip some 60,000 youth as part of its Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

The training would be carried out under the auspices of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).

The project, which will be implemented in partnership with some international investors, will be piloted in the Greater Accra Region with some 5000 beneficiaries.

Speaking to Citi News on the side-lines of the World Youth Day Celebrations organised by the Greater Accra Regional YEA, Prince Obeng, acting Regional Chairman, said the agency is prepared to provide all the necessary equipment to facilitate the training.

“We need to first of all train them or introduce them to mechanized agriculture. We will as well set them up. We will be coming up with people who want to go into pepper farming and all of that. We will be bringing up and set up alongside machines.”

According to Mr. Obeng, the move seeks to boost the interest of young people towards agriculture by providing them with requisite skills and resources to improve the livelihood of young Ghanaians.

“Once we set them up, we expect that they pay YEA back through the produce that they make after the set up, and so within a period of 2 years or may be less, we would have expected you to be able to be on your own. This is going to be the key to open up our transformation and prosperity more. When the youth get into agriculture we are able to produce on a larger scale you can bet it, that this country is going to develop on a scale that's not happened before.”

What the planting for Food and Jobs programme is about

The Planting for Food and Job Campaign a policy that has been introduced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to help address the declining growth of Ghana's agricultural sector.

It is a clarion call on every single Ghanaian to take farming as a full time or part time activity.

It is a five year long policy which is geared towards increasing food productivity and ensure food security for the country as well as reduce food import bills to the barest minimum.

It is also an avenue to modernize agriculture and make it a source of employment for the teeming youths.

The five major pillars of the policy

1. Supply of Improved Seeds to farmers at subsidized prices (50% subsidy)
2. Supply of fertilizers to farmers at subsidized prices (50% price cut)
3. Free extension services to farmers (1200 extension officers from the five main agric colleges already enrolled onto the program. Additional 4,000 extension assistants to be mobilized)
4. Marketing opportunities for produce after harvest, (arrangements have been made to offer ready markets for farmers who will be participating in the campaign)
5. E-Agriculture (a technological platform to monitor and track activities and progress of farmers through a database system)