Executive Director of the Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, has disclosed that a lot of children in Ghana have lost interest in agriculture.
According to him, the children's understanding about agriculture is limited to farming and a lot of them see farmers to be unattractive.
Speaking in an interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Bright Appiah disclosed a survey by the Child Rights International proves that about 80 percent of children are not interested in venturing into agriculture.
"We let the children define what agriculture is but we realized that the kind of definition that we give to agriculture even within our educational system is limited to farming. So, the children have built their concept of agriculture around farming. So, about 80 percent of the children say they're not interested in going into agriculture; the reason being that when they were young or when the child commits a wrongdoing, he or she is told to weed . . . and this has built some kind of mindset in the children's head which is not helpful," he expressed worry, adding "a lot of the children also think that if you're a farmer, it's not attractive''.
He, therefore, called for a broader discussion on the relevance of agriculture saying most of the nation builders are those who are into agriculture.
"We feel that, moving forward, the government's intervention in the agricultural sector; we have to be very open and have a broader discussion in that area so that we can expose other agricultural opportunities to our children within the supply chain so that their mindset will not only be on the fact that agriculture is only farming," he stressed.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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4-H Ghana is helping change that narrative. Time is overdue to start applying science, technology and other innovative ways to agriculture. Subsistence way of farming is what most Ghanaian children know. And planting of crops and rearing of animals on those same piece of family lands are what they have been exposed to. How then do we expect them to act towards agriculture? Agriculture is Business and until we teach these young ones and start doing it right, we shouldn't expect them to love it.
Ghana's government is very hope-less. It is made up of crooks who have looted state resources through embezzlement, mismanagement and allowed ***barred word*** by foreigners. So, why will a child in Ghana today become a farmer whiles ediots use politics to loot and squander resources? Besides, our leaders are very ***barred word*** and do not know how to make farming such a lucrative business that the best minds in Ghana will be the farmers.
One does not need any high mental acumen to see this simple anecdotal fact. There are no well-to-do farmers in Ghana who could inspire children to become farmers. Also, we do not treat farming as an business by which means one could be wealthy and prosperous as farmers. The image of farmers that we have in Ghana are that of poor, wretched, hungry subsistence rural dwellers. In this day of internet, who in his right mind will aspire to be a poverty stricken farm worker who is perpetually poor?