Agriculture Minister-designate, Eric Opoku, has bemoaned the seeming disinterest in the sector by Ghanaian youth.
Eric Opoku noted during his vetting on Monday, January 20, 2025 that under his administration, the sector will be made attractive to Ghanaian youth by heavily implementing policies to generate interest in Agribusiness.
“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,” he stated.
The Asunafo South MP emphasised the need to reassure farmers of available market for agricultural produce to boost their confidence.
“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 market for their produce and that is why we have emphasised in our manifesto on Agri- business,” he added.
He further disclosed a staggering revelation about the ratio of farmers to agricultural extension officers which is worrying.
“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,” Opoku stressed.
