A business incubation hub in the Volta Region, Ho Node Hub in partnership with Ho Municipal National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) has organised a day’s agribusiness dubbed “So you want to farm” to motivate young ones to venture into the agriculture sector.
The forum which came off on Friday, August 3 created an inclusive platform for young people to engage directly with experts, practitioners, Agriculture financers and peers on everything they needed to know before taking the plunge in the area of farming.
The various speakers at the forum were of the conviction that agriculture is the way to go as it provides a great opportunity to create several jobs to absorb the increasing unemployed youth and thousands who complete National Service every year.
Alfred Adjabeng, Founder of School Farms urged young ones to go into farming saying, there is huge market for vegetables and crops that are locally consumed and when people venture into those areas, they are sure to make enough fortune especially when the produces are well packaged for the market.
Dr. Kenneth Nyalemegbe, Ag. President of EP University, Ho took participants through the rudiments of farming. He talked about considering the agro-ecological zone, choice of crop, irrigation among others.
He cautioned young farmers to do cost benefit analysis to know which crops have low input and give high output and avoid prestigious crops in order to be successful.
Daniel Ofosu Henaku, CEO of Natures Valley Farms appealed to people wishing to get into agriculture to take it as serious business.
He said land should be acquired through the right means and from the right people to avoid problems in future and emphasised on the need for irrigation to guard against drought.
Mr. Joseph Abanga, of Department of Food and Agriculture, Adaklu District enumerated interventions of government to support the agriculture sector in the country and called on all to get into agriculture.
On financing agriculture, Alphonse Somi of Access Bank, Ho advised young farmers and those desirous of getting into agriculture to practice vertical agriculture, thus, going beyond traditional agriculture and keeping records.
According to him, these are the only ways banks will have confidence in them to loan depositors’ monies to them considering the high-risk nature of the sector.
A young and successful farmer, Justice Bukoye shared his experiences with the participants and underscored the need to get into agriculture.
By: Ewoenam Kpodo/voltaonlinegh.com