An expert in Agribusiness, Mr Abraham Dwomah Odoom, has stated that pesticides and herbicides (Chemical fertilisers) are destroying Ghanaian farm lands.
According to Dwomah Odoom, the European Union (E.U) had already warned Africa about the dangers associated with the chemical fertilisers. The usage of chemical fertilisers, he disclosed, is having a toll on the health of unsuspecting Ghanaians.
“I will tell you, most of the youth who are dying today is all because of this residue, because it affects your kidney and lungs.”
Mr Abraham Odoom said this in an interview with the media at the second version of the ‘Youth in Agribusiness Festival 2024’, an offshoot of the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation.
Held under the theme: “Agribusiness Modernisation: A tool for Sustainable Youth Employment in Ghana”, young agri-business entrepreneurs shared their success stories.
According to Odoom, per global parings, Ghana and Africa have the largest arable lands available for agriculture.
However, the usage of chemical fetilisers was posing a challenge to the future of agriculture in Ghana and Africa at large.
“Meanwhile, Africa has the largest land available for agriculture and I will tell you, most of our lands now have been degraded by the constant use of pesticide and herbicides.”
The repercussion, the agribusiness expert noted, was that poor farmers would have to look for huge sums of money to improve upon the fertility of the land.
“But the lands are no more fertile. You plant and you do not get the yields. At the end of the day, the land development is costly than the profit that would accrue from agriculture. This discourages the youth to venture into agriculture.”
Nevertheless, he charged the youth to take advantage and sign up to the Agricultural Economic Enclaves, which are being created by the government and other private firms.
According to him, the initiative would take off the burden of seeking for factors of production for farming such as land, water and tools among others.
Under this policy, he continued, the youth would only have to express interest in farming by signing a contract concerning the number of years that they would like to farm.
This, according to Abraham Odoom, is a way of getting jobs for the youth.
“Most of the youth do not need to go into formal job because they are talented. We need to encourage the youth and stop importing everything,”
On his part, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Amansie South, Clement Opoku Gyamfi, noted that the agribusiness event aims at celebrating the relentless spirit of entrepreneurship among the youth.
“Today, we carry on his legacy by empowering the next generation with agribusiness skills.”
The Chairman for the occasion, Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah, in his opening remarks, noted that the John Agyekum Kufuor youth in agribusiness aims to conscientise the Ghanaian youth about vast opportunities in the agriculture sector.
Agriculture in Ghana, according to the former U.N staff, had largely been dominated by the elderly who are steadily leaving the scene.
