Some stakeholders in the agriculture sector have often advocated that efforts should be made to dismantle barriers to youth participation in the sector.

They said if young farmers were equipped with the requisite skills, loans were facilitated for inputs such as seed and fertiliser for crop production, fingerlings for aquaculture and links provided for them to market their products, they would be attracted into agriculture.

Lately, the emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19), which has since ceased to be a national issue and grown to be a global plague, has had a major effect on both the supply and demand for food.

Experts have said that should the pandemic intensify and countries continue to close their borders in their quest to curb the spread of the disease, the global food supply chain will be affected.

While it is obvious that the revenue the country would have made from export would reduce due to restrictions on border closure, there are fears of high unemployment among the youth.

Consequently, as the COVID-19 persists longer than anticipated, there have been attempts to attract the youth not to just go into agriculture but to take up farming as an export business with a view to increase the number of Ghana's youthful and educated population that are attracted to the agricultural export sector.

Agric for export
As an incentive to motivate the youth who express interest in agric for export, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), in collaboration with the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), is implementing the Youth in Export Programme (YiEP) to encourage the youth, particularly those who have completed tertiary school to take up agric for export as a career.

The YiEP is aimed at attracting the youth in agricultural crop production communities to take up farming as export business with a view to increasing the number of Ghana’s youthful and educated population that are attracted to the agricultural export sector.

It is also designed to be an avenue for the youth to earn decent incomes from agriculture and other exports, thus putting them on the pedestal to become self-employed.

The Director of Projects at GEPA, Mr Alex Dadzawa, said the authority would facilitate the process of starting their own farms with the acquisition of at least an acre.

“It will become a sustainable long-term employment for any of them who is dedicated and to also produce for the export market,” he said.

Already, the first batch of 20 selected trainees are undergoing a six-month training in Accra for the pilot phase of the programme.

Afterwards, they will be attached to experienced exporters at their farms to mentor them in learning the rudiments of the export business.

- Export earnings from the agricultural sub-sector sector in 2018 amounted to US$591.036 million compared to US$440.955 million earned in 2017, states the 2018 report on non-traditional export sector (NTEs)
- The sub-sector contributed 21.01 per cent of total receipts from NTEs in 2018 which amounted to US$2.813 billion.
- Cashew nut, which was the top earner of all agric produce in the period, was also the main driver of the NTE results for last year.
- Cashew nut performance increased by 43.84 per cent (US$378, 21) over the 2017 performance of US$262.95 and contributed 63.99 per cent to the total sub-sector earnings.

Why now?
According to the Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Dr Afua Asabea Asare, the idea for the YiEP was mooted following a visit to some exporters on their field.

“We realised there is a lot of work to be done in the hinterland and yet you see young people around talking about unemployment and there are no jobs for them. So, we decided there must be some hand holding, we need to direct them and guide,” she said in an interview with the Graphic Business in Accra on June 18, 2020.

She said the authority would follow the trainees every step of the way until they could export their first product and become part of the export community.

“It is necessary because the youth are disenfranchised and then the COVID disease too. I dare say there are some positives that the youth could take advantage of and one way is through agric for export,” she said.

On market access, which is normally a challenge to operators in the agric export sector, Dr Asare said the authority planned to hand hold the trainees until they exported their first product in the market.

“We have been in this business for a long time – 50 years and we know where the market is and we will help them. All these incentives are to motivate them to stay in the sector,” she added.

A beneficiary from Kpando in the Volta Region, who is already into cassava farming, Mr Joseph Anyomi Quaicoo, was happy about the assurance of access to market for their produce.

“I believe it will go a long way to help me create job for myself and others. I recommend that young people who were already in the field and excelling should be projected, so that other people will be inspired,” he said.

He added that farming should be seen as a business for the next generation.