Agricultural Articles
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. Eric Opoku on Thursday 3rd April, 2025 officially briefed the media on the Feed Ghana Programme (FGP), a nationwide initiative aimed at boosting Agricultural productivity while creating employment opportunities across the country.
The briefing took place at the Minister’s Conference Room and focused on expanding Agricultural production and ensuring a stable supply of raw materials to support the growth of agro-industries. According to Honourable Opoku, FGP is designed to generate thousands of jobs for youth and agripreneurs, contributing to Ghana’s economic transformation.
"Agriculture remains the backbone of our economy, and through the Feed Ghana Programme, we aim to create employment for thousands of Ghanaians in farming, processing, and agribusiness sectors," the minister noted. The minister highlighted that Feed Ghana Programme will be officially launched by His Excellence John Dramani Mahama, on April 12th, 2025 at the Methodist School Park in Techiman, Bono East Region.
Read more: Feed Ghana Programme to Create Jobs and Strengthen the Agro-Industry
Since the global pandemic, COVID-19 struck in 2019, the issue of food security globally has been a major concern.
Coupled with the devastating effect of climate change on food production, a number of measures have been adopted at various country level to contain the situation.
It was in the light of this that the Emergency Support to Rural Livelihoods & Food Systems Exposed to COVID-19 (ESRF) project was introduced by the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on smallholder farmers and food systems in 2019.
Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this initiative aims to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on vulnerable populations and maintain food security in the country.
Read more: Strengthening Agric sector amidst climate change: Contribution of ESRF project
As you are aware, the month of September has been dubbed “Rabies Awareness Month” by all health partners. Consequently, this year’s celebration is scheduled to take place in the Upper East Region.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “One Health, Zero Deaths”, which is aimed at highlighting awareness, celebrating rabies prevention efforts, intensifying activities and uniting towards a total eradication by 2030.
Rabies is a deadly viral disease of warm-blooded animals and is transmitted to humans through the bite or a scratch of an infected animal, resulting in fatal encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), nervous system disorder and death.
Ghana has been facing youth unemployment for more than a decade. Statistics have it that 12 per cent of the youth are unemployed despite major investments by both the government and the private sector.
It is obvious that this challenge will intensify if job opportunities remain limited as it is now.
The agricultural sector, however, is deemed to be the engine of growth and job creation because it has the highest potential among the gamut of enterprises in this part of the world.
In this regard, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) is working to make agriculture attractive to the youth and create decent employment opportunities through the greenhouse village and capacity-building centres, especially in our rural communities.
Read more: Tackling youth unemployment: Greenhouse technology holds employment potential
The implementation of new educational reforms in 2012 in Ghana led to the abolition of agriculture science as a single subject in basic schools and agriculture science course was subsumed into Integrated Science.
Concerns have been raised by stakeholders as to whether the reforms give room for adequate covering of agriculture needed in basic schools.
Agricultural education at the basic school level has been identified as vital for training young ones in the basic principles of agriculture, changing their attitudes towards agriculture and providing avenues for the development of their skills for sustainable agricultural development.
Read more: Agriculture colleges valuable tool for human resource development