By Raymond DENTEH
As Ghana embarks on a transformative journey to reclaim 25% of its poultry market from imports, a critical challenge looms—how to sustainably feed this ambition.
The feed sector, especially maize and soya, constitutes up to 70% of the cost of poultry production. Any serious attempt to boost local poultry output must be matched with an equally aggressive effort to expand domestic feed grain production.
This is where the Sustainable Livelihoods for the Youth Through Agriculture (SULIYA) initiative offers a timely and practical solution.
Aligning Youth Employment with Feed Security
SULIYA is a bold intervention designed to engage Ghana’s unemployed youth in structured, commercial agriculture with a focus on high-demand feed crops such as maize and soya.
It aims to bridge two pressing national needs: creating dignified employment for young people and ensuring a reliable, cost-effective feed supply for the poultry industry.
This initiative is not merely about jobs or agriculture—it is about aligning youth energy with national industrial priorities. By directing youth participation into productive value chains, SULIYA directly tackles the feed bottleneck threatening Ghana’s poultry transformation.
The Block Farming Model: Industrial Agriculture for Young Agripreneurs
Under SULIYA, youth will be organized into cooperatives and supported to cultivate maize and soya on block farms established nationwide. These farms will be developed in collaboration with traditional authorities and landowners, who will contribute land as equity in exchange for fair returns.
Each block farm will serve as a productivity hub, equipped with:
- Mechanized services and irrigation support
- Input supply shops and agronomic extension
- Drying facilities and storage warehouses
- Off-take agreements with feed mills and poultry producers
- Technical mentorship and business advisory services
Youth farmers will receive in-kind credit comprising improved seeds, crop protection and weed control chemicals, fertilizer, and land preparation, linked where possible to government mechanization programs and rural service centres. Repayment will occur post-harvest through structured market linkages.
Integrated Risk Management: Credit, Inputs, and Insurance Bundles
A key innovation under SULIYA is the bundling of credit and input finance with agricultural insurance to mitigate production and weather-related risks. Each youth farmer will benefit from:
- Input packages tied to area-yield or weather-indexed crop insurance
- Post-harvest insurance covering storage and transportation losses
- Credit protection insurance to secure lender repayment and ensure reinvestment
Additionally, social protection mechanisms will be embedded to enhance resilience. Youth farmers will have access to microinsurance products such as:
- Life insurance (group death-in-service cover)
- Hospitalization insurance for medical emergencies
- Accident and disability insurance for on-farm risks
- Informal pension schemes for future security
These low-cost protections reduce vulnerability and ensure youth remain economically active despite unforeseen shocks.
The Feed Math: What Ghana Needs and What SULIYA Can Deliver
To meet the 25% poultry import substitution target (100,000 MT), Ghana requires:
- 222,222 MT of poultry feed annually, comprising:
- 133,333 MT of maize
- 77,778 MT of soya meal
Assuming yields of 4 MT/ha for maize and 2 MT/ha for soya under improved agronomy, the following land area is needed:
- 33,333 hectares of maize
- 38,889 hectares of soya
This land requirement may reduce where multiple cropping seasons are feasible. With 10,000 youth each cultivating 2–4 hectares under the SULIYA model, these targets become attainable within three years—injecting over GHS 500 million annually into rural economies.
Financing Youth Agribusiness: Crowdfunding for National Prosperity
SULIYA introduces a novel financing pathway—structured crowdfunding—to mobilize domestic capital from Ghanaian workers, entrepreneurs, and the diaspora. This platform will:
- Enable Ghanaians with surplus income to invest in high-impact agribusiness ventures
- Ensure transparency, digital tracking, and regular performance reporting
- Foster patriotic capital mobilisation for food security and job creation
- Complement donor grants, private equity, and concessional loans in a blended finance approach
By inviting working Ghanaians to co-invest in irrigation, land preparation, and inputs, SULIYA becomes a shared national development enterprise with tangible returns.
Tackling Structural Barriers in Youth Agribusiness
SULIYA is uniquely positioned to address the systemic barriers youth face in agriculture:
- Access to Land – via partnerships with traditional authorities and landowners
- Access to Finance – through bundled credit, crowdfunding, and public-private mechanisms
- Access to Inputs – structured through cooperatives and service providers
- Access to Markets – secured through pre-agreed off-take arrangements
- Access to Skills and Mentorship – via agronomic training and incubation centres
- Access to Social Protection – through integrated insurance and cooperative schemes
Beyond Production: Building Resilience, Enterprise, and Inclusion
SULIYA’s long-term vision includes:
- Youth Agribusiness Incubators for technical and soft skills development
- Finance and Innovation Labs to pilot digital agriculture solutions
- Warehouse Receipt Systems (WRS) to support price stabilization
- Processing and packaging facilities for on-farm value addition
- Inclusive strategies that prioritize participation by women and marginalized youth
Conclusion: Feeding Poultry, Feeding Prosperity
Reviving Ghana’s poultry sector is not just about raising birds—it is about feeding them. And feeding them affordably, sustainably, and locally. SULIYA provides a holistic, scalable pathway to youth-driven feed grain production, underpinned by domestic capital mobilisation, de-risking instruments, and inclusive community ownership.
With bundled insurance, structured finance, and strategic youth engagement, Ghana can reduce its dependence on imported feed and poultry, create dignified jobs, and foster rural transformation.
Let’s feed poultry—and in doing so, feed prosperity.
