The wrong notion that Ghanaian farmers are the most deprived in the society.

https://news.google.com.gh/news/section?pz=1&cf=all&q=Agriculture%20in%20GHana&siidp=3bde0d96a7adbeecf3c58faad4637a0b4fc8&ict=ln After reading this GNA story captured below one is tempted to have a real go at the assertion by this farmer.I really do not get it when people make such general sweeping statements about agriculture just to score points. Why should anyone stop a peasant farmer from describing themselves as deprived in the society when the farmers themselves are saying they are. What has changed? Yes! some farmers are doing very well, some have become successful but there are many out there who are not doing very well. Yes!... It well might be that the assertion My Ayittey makes, is one of the reasons why the youth do not want to go into farming but I disagree that it is one of the major reasons that has stopped the youth from investing in Agriculture. How many people atre involved in plantation farming in GHana? how many nucleus farms exist that have out grower schemes to help these peasant farmers? Is there any Agri-financing in this country. He should come again and explain how a young person wanting to do Agric can start a farm without any funds, No land and no technical support? Where are the extension officers in this country? Please some of these sweeping statements being banded around are even more damaging. When those who have toiled to even start farm manage to produce under very difficult circumstances, are there any good roads to bring them to the markets? In these rural areas where they live are there any social amenities worth boasting about. Its about time real investments are made in the Agric sector and this is the missing link. The lack of opportunity for young people to even get farmlands, good improved seeds, farm insurance, the technical know-how and support etc. these are the issues we need to be looking at. He is a farmer and perhaps he needs talk to the younger generation as to why they don't want to get into farming. It is just not the notion that farmers are poor because its the same for others in other sectors. It is how we have managed the transition of our ageing farmers to the younger ones and how the sector has been developed over the years. Today in most second cycle institutions the students do not have any time to even do any real School farming and even those who do it as a course barely do any real practicals. Having said this I am not discounting some of the pertinent issues he has raised but the prescription he is selling does not unravel the poor performance and the lack of interest by the youth in this agric sector. A GNA story The 2013 Upper Manya Krobo District Best farmer , Mr Moses Kumah Ayittey, has called for an end to the wrong notion that farmers are the most deprived in the society. He said the wrong notion is one of the major reasons that make the youth to refuse to invest in agriculture and trooped to the commercial towns chasing none existing jobs. Mr Ayittey said there was evidence that when farming was properly managed and the appropriate procedure and technology applied , the returns to the investor could be as high as the returns to the best investments in the economy. He was speaking at the 4H-Ghana Upper Manya Krobo District maiden Project Exhibition at Asesewa. Mr Ayittey appealed to teachers to stop using weeding as a punishment to students because it made them to regard farming as a continuation of their punishment in school. Mr Emmanuel Sena of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture(MOFA) called on the District Assembly, traditional authorities and captains of industry in the district to support the 4H concept to be extended to many schools in the district. Mr Kweku Boateng, the Chief Executive Officer of 4H-Ghana, said soon the world population would reach 7 billion and food would be needed to feed the population. He said 4H-Ghana was teaching the youth through their school gardening how to adopt high yielding seeds and the use of best agricultural practices that would enable them to increase their yield and incomes in future as farmers. Mr Boateng said the introduction of the Dupon Pioneer seeds and the new planting protocol to the 4H-Ghana Clubs in the district helped farmers in the district to increase their maize yield from six mini bags per acre to 20 mini bags. He called on the District Assembly and parents to support the 4H-Ghana sustainable school feeding programme introduced to two basic schools for it to be extended to many schools in the district. Mr Trent Mcnight, Chief Executive Officer of Agricorps, a non-governmental organization based in the United States which has been supporting 4H-Ghana with US agricultural graduates to help implement their agricultural programmes, said if the youth are taught how to run agriculture as a business, they would grow to feed Ghana and the world. Mr Mcnight, a businessman and a wheat farmer, said as a young 4H member in the US, he started farming with five cows and now has 3,000 cows in Texas.