By: Tabitha Kugbonu | Voltaonlinegh |

Development Practitioner, Confidence Abotsi has pledged his support for the growth of agriculture activities at Mafi-Kumasi Senior High Technical School (MAKSTEC) in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region.

According to Mr. Abotsi, per his checks, he realised that most of the Senior High School (SHS) students do not see the relevance of engaging themselves in agriculture and so, change their course from Agriculture to other courses.

He said agriculture “is not about cutlass and hoe” and charged individuals especially those at SHSs offering Agriculture to embrace it as an important subject and work towards achieving success from it.

Mr. Abotsi attributed the problems of agriculture to lack of technical know-how, thus, making the venture quite challenging but mentioned that there are lots of opportunities and benefits in the agriculture sector.

The Central Tongu National Democratic Congress Chairman made this known during an interaction with the Agriculture Department students and the entire student body of MAKSTEC on the importance of agriculture and how they should cherish it for the betterment of their future.

He hinted of plans to initiate a five-year award scheme to reward the best student in the Agriculture Department from form1-3 to bring out ideas/proposal on what s/he was taught in the classroom and how to implement it on the field as business to improve upon agriculture.

He added that the best student would be given Gh¢2,000 to kick start his/her own  business and a team including teachers, officials from MoFA and Adidome Farm Institute to assess the project which aimed to boost agriculture activities in the district and beyond.

Central Tongu District Agric Crop Officer, Francis Tsamor emphasised that conscious efforts must be made in order to make profit from agriculture.

Mr. Tsamor said venturing into the agriculture business required asking oneself the right questions regarding what, when and where to produce to meet the needs of target groups.

He therefore encouraged students to take the Agriculture subject seriously and pledged 1,000 mango seedlings to the department.

Head of Agriculture Department, MASKTEC, Jeoffrey Fieve said the department was planning to engage in pig production by the end of 2019.

Mr. Fieve lamented the lack of tools for the department and pleaded for support assuring that with their efforts and the right equipment, his department would benefit from the awards scheme.

Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com