Founder and Managing Director of Eden Tree Limited, Catherine Krobo Edusei, has called for the creation of demonstration farms, that showcase best practices in Agriculture, with high-level technology, as a measure to attract the youth into the sector.
According to her, technology is such a big enabler and game-changer in Agriculture that when it is streamlined properly, with the right resources, it could change the narrative surrounding the sector.
According to the award-winning entrepreneur, who is celebrating her 25th year as a farmer, Agribusiness, though a profitable and lucrative value chain, has suffered due to the negative perceptions and views surrounding it.
“Many young people see the Agric sector as a dirty and unrewarding venture, only for the elderly, uneducated, and rural poor.
Speaking to Rev. Albert Ocran in a Springboard Virtual University interview, Madam Krobo Edusei stressed that because school farms were used as places for punishing students, many had grown up with a deep-seated psychological dislike for farming.
She bemoaned the cost of modern technologies and the lack of access to finances to acquire them. In spite of these challenges, she still sees opportunities to create jobs in farming and agribusiness.
“We are not producing enough as a country and we often under-distribute and are forced to rely on imports. What we have therefore done at Eden Tree, is to create a scheme where we give soft loans to smallholder farmers to enable them to plant for us. While this creates income security for them, they sometimes breach trust and try to cheat by side selling.”
Sharing how she went into the Agricultural sector, Catherine Krobo Edusei indicated that she entered into farming by default
“I relocated to Ghana as a banker, with my two children, and prayed to God for work outside the formal sector. An NGO request for aloe vera in large quantities created an opportunity. I ended up planting culinary herbs like Basel, parsley, dale, coriander, and fennel and the rest is history.
Catherine also expressed concern about the cultural perception that farming is not for women. According to her, while it is the men that lead in land acquisition and in the collection of cash, it’s women who plant, harvest, and trade the farm produce.
She called on the youth, especially young women, to view agribusiness with an open mind and not see it as below their level since the opportunities in the sector are vast and lucrative.
“If COVID has taught us anything, it is the fact that there are endless possibilities with food. The world will continue to demand more food. Considering how much arable land we have, if we make Agric enjoyable and profitable, Africa could end up being the food basket of the world” she concluded.
