The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Hon Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has reiterated that agribusiness is a game changer to Ghana’s youth unemployment issues.
She explained that with the burgeoning youth populations and rising youth unemployment rates in the country, the contribution of agriculture to poverty reduction will only be sustained by the inclusion of youth in the sector.
According to her, some of the challenges facing the agriculture sector in Ghana are low technical and entrepreneurial skills, limited opportunities, and inadequate awareness of agriculture by youth.
Dr Zanetor, who is the Deputy Ranking of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament made this during the three-day training of over 150 young men and women in rabit and snail rearing and Mushroom growing workshop in Accra, last Thursday, December 16, 2021.
The program which was organized by the Office of the MP in collaboration with AgricHouse Foundation was on the theme: “National Agricultural Capacity Building and Business Setup Roadshow.”
Speaking to the beneficiary’s young men and women at the launching ceremony, Dr Zanetor said, “the issue of solving unemployment is about making sure people have the power to control their destiny and that s what we are doing.”
By the end of the three days, she said beneficiaries would have had a train on record keeping so that they could document the operation to track the daily activities, especially the case of rabbits and snails that needed more preventive measures to avoid being contacted with diseases.
Madam Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa , Executive Director of AgricHouse Foundation explained that the training covers the entire value chain from feeding and nutrition, health, records keeping, business development to processing and packaging.
According to her, the training would be replicated in other regions of the country for more young men and women to benefit.
Mr Benjamin Ofei, CEO of Agrimate and one of the resources persons lauded the initiative of Dr Zanetor and AgricHouse Foundation and intimated that with agriculture being the economic base for many countries, it is a sector that can absorb the majority of unemployed youth as skilled and semi-skilled labour.
He added that many of the youth could be empowered to start their own businesses in the area of the rabbit and snail rearing value chains of several important animals that feed the people of Ghana and beyond.
Mr Ofei said Agrimate would take opportunity and sponsor the program at the next level of training to help address youth unemployment in the country.
Nana Pomaah Antepim, one of the trainers told EXPRESSNEWSGHANA, that participants were taken through series of courses from feeding, nutrition, record keeping, Food and Drugs Authority (FDA0 regulation, among other health issues with regards to health and disease on rabbits.
She encouraged the participants to take the programme very serious as farming or agriculture is one of the best forms of employment that one would never go hungry, stressing that all participants would be given startup support after training.
Some of the participants commended the organizers, thus Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings and AgricHouse Foundation for the opportunity to initiate their own businesses in the agriculture sector.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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