Agric offers prospects for employment, prosperity "Graphic MD lauds Miss Agriculture Ghana initiative"
The Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Limited, Ato Afful, has encouraged the youth to venture into agriculture as it is a profitable sector with a wide range of employment opportunities.
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He said agriculture offered far more than the perception of labour and pain.
The negative perceptions about the sector, he added, impacted the growth of the industry which, he said, had great prospects and offered promising avenues for financial development and self-actualisation.
“It actually gives you an opportunity to make money, this job enables you to be very free.
Farmers are self-sufficient, and that is what we call independence.
You cannot pretend to be independent when you are not able to feed yourself.”
“Some years ago, we used to be exporters of crops, but for some reason we have become importers, and in that arrangement we are stressing ourselves and frustrating our economy by gathering currencies that are not ours to go and bring in food just to eat,” he said.
Mr Afful made the observation yesterday when he received Miss Agriculture Ghana, Ruth Adolwine Awintanga, who visited the media house to share ideas on how both parties could work to make agriculture more attractive, especially to women and the youth.
Ms Awintanga was in the company of the Chairperson of the Chamber of Women in Agribusiness Ghana (CHAWA), organisers of the pageant, Theresa Aniagyei-Bonsu, and the Project Lead, Oheneba Akosua Kyerewaa.
Also at the meeting were the Director of Marketing, Franklin Sowa, and the Editor, Graphic, Theophilus Yartey.
Mr Afful said the rate at which the country imported agricultural products was lamentable.
“If you are bringing in something that will expand your development agenda and enable you to make more in terms of revenues, that is a worthwhile investment, but to bring in something that you will eat and that’s about it, then seriously you are not helping anybody,” he said.
He noted that his outfit was also contributing its quota to increase eyeballs on the agricultural sector.
“On our side as a business, this year, as part of our national development series, we have agriculture, agro-processing and food security at the core of it.
We are pushing to bring the nation’s mind to the essence of depending on ourselves, producing for ourselves and feeding ourselves,” Mr Afful said.
Initiative
He also commended the Miss Agriculture team for the initiative, stressing that: “You are on the path to something significant and ground shifting”.
Mr Sowa said capacity-building was vital to making the agricultural sector an attractive one, noting that it was time the sector was seen as a lifestyle and also an arm of tourism.
“It is a rewarding venture, but a conscious effort is needed to make it attractive to the youth, and that is where we come in.
We are working tirelessly on that with a lot of initiatives,” he said.
Mr Yartey also noted that with the right advocacy, the sector would be beneficial to a lot of people.
He said he would use his influence as the Editor of the newspaper to do his best to make sure the needed attention was given to such initiatives to maximise desired results.
Commendation
The team from CHAWA commended the management of GCGL, promising that the scheme would set the pace to make agriculture “sexy and attractive”.
“The engagement today shows that we are not at the wrong place.
A lot has to be done if what we have discussed here would see the light of day.
We are on a mission to change the narrative.”
"Farming is no longer boring.
The primitive ways of doing things have changed due to technology, and we want to encourage the youth and women, especially, that agriculture is worth pursuing," Ms Aniagyei-Bonsu said.
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