Help Provide School Meals for 5000 Children

Rural young people are a great resource for local agricultural development, yet little is done to harness their potential. So despite the huge arable land in rural areas, coupled with the opportunities that the agriculture sector presents in these areas, rural young people are migrating to urban areas in pursuit of ‘unexisting’ jobs.

Rural young people are the future of food security, yet around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas.

In Ghana, there is compelling evidence of the ageing farmer population which when not addressed, will threaten sustainability in agricultural production and development.

The average age of a farmer in Ghana is 55 years and life expectancy averages between 55 and 60 years.

Twenty-two facts

Below are the 22 things to think about:

1. Rural young people are a great resource for local agricultural development and food security and must not be treated as passive participants.

2. Rural young people do not perceive agriculture as a remunerative and prestigious profession.

3. Rural young people do not see economic opportunities and attractive environments in rural areas.

4. Opportunities, knowledge and support for value addition to agricultural production are yet to be harnessed by rural young people.

5. Rural young farmers are exploited by a growing urban young agripreneurpopulation along the value chain or through agriculture value chain development.

6. Rural young people are excluded from harnessing information and communications technology (ICT) for local agricultural development mainly because of unavailable ICT infrastructure in rural areas.

7. The concept of ICT in agriculture is yet to sink in with rural young people.

8. Rural young farmers cannot connect their produce to urban markets.

9. Farmlands for rural young farmers are under siege by urban estate developers.

10. Rural young agripreneurs are excluded from participating in international and national discussions on agricultural development.

11. Indigenous agricultural knowledge is relegated and totally replaced with expensive and unsustainable new knowledge whereas both can be leveraged for agricultural development.

12. The focus of agriculture investors on urban farmers and commercial agriculture will destroy the prospects of rural smallholder farming and may result in food insecurity.

13. Despite the arguably high penetration of mobile phones in Africa with inaccessible internet in rural communities, agriculture tech innovations must be contextualised. ICT in agriculture is not an urban concept.

14. Opportunities, knowledge and support for agricultural insurance are yet to be exploited by rural young agripreneurs.

15. The total dependence on collateral is a threat to the participation of rural, young agripreneurs in the sector.

16. The future of work in the rural economy also depends on making rural communities as habitable as urban. Basic infrastructural development, accessible technology and the availability of social amenities encourage agricultural development in rural communities.

17. Urban agripreneurs local labour exploitation creates conflicts and threatens local agriculture development.

18. Conserve indigenous and sustainable good agricultural practices through local agriculture mentoring.

19. School farms are safe spaces for youth. They promote agricultural entrepreneurial skills development through experiential learning.

20. Prospects of a partnership between rural and urban agripreneurs are yet to be harnessed.

21. Agribusiness is not an urban concept.

22. Rural young people’s experience, indigenous knowledge and skills should be leveraged for youth employment in agriculture.

In January 2018, the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Education introduced the Senior High School double-track system. The system is to afford the government with the capacity to deal with a large number of placed candidates who would hitherto not have had the opportunity to access Free Senior High School because of lack of classroom spaces.

The double track system, which commenced with the 2018/2019 academic year, is a fallout of the free SHS policy by the government which is in its second year of operation.

The double track system, we are told, is to last between five and seven years to allow the government ample time to address the accommodation challenges in the various Senior High Schools after which the 400 out of the 698 schools which are currently running the double intake system would revert to the trimester school calendar of the SHS.

The double track system and School Farms programme

The double track has affected the implementation of the School Farms project, in that, schools do not have enough time to allow students to engage in practical agriculture. Ideally, the school farms provide a space for experiential learning for agriculture entrepreneurial skills through our Agriculture Skills Development Program for young people.

Each track undergoes two semesters instead of the regular trimester in an academic year. Normal classroom contact hours have been increased from six hours per day to eight hours under the double track system. Because of the increase in the instructional hours from six hours to eight hours per day, teaching hours have also been increased from 1080 hours per week to 1134 hours per week in the double track system. This has been coupled with a long 41 days’ vacation period.

In view of the recent changes in the educational system, students may have limited time in school with longer contact hours within this short period. This means that students may not have enough time to work on the farm as well as likely not being on campus long enough to successfully complete full cultivation. Due to the increased contact hours, it has become difficult for schools to apportion times which students can dedicate to work on the farms.

The way forward

To overcome this challenge, the team has decided on creating an out-of-school model, at the community level, where students who are not in school during holidays can learn from home. This model would last until the end of the year 2024 when the double track system is anticipated to end.

Because of the two shifts, for each track or group of students, there is the need to divide the allocated land into two to allow each track experience the entire land preparation, nursery and monitoring plant growth before vacation. This would give students the opportunity to learn at various stages of production and measure growth from different stages. This would be made possible by the integration of the school farms practical into the time tables of school curricula.