The country’s unemployed graduates should consider taking up a career in farming as worthy employment alternatives instead of chasing unrealistic jobs – this is according to seasoned entrepreneur and farmer, Mr. Kwame Offei.
According to Mr. Offei, graduates and the youth seeking jobs are better off venturing into agriculture to ensure a better living rather than “loitering around” looking for non-existent white color jobs.
Speaking in an interview with sit-in host of Rite FM’s Morning Ride, Dr. Kenneth Oliver on Thursday, the entrepreneur wondered why the chuck of the country’s graduates chased after white-collar jobs when several opportunities in the agricultural sector sat untapped.
To him, the purpose of education is no more than the acquisition of knowledge which by itself does not guarantee a secured job.
“Going to school is just to acquire knowledge and cushion yourself mentally; it is not an automatic means of securing a job after education,” Mr. Offei asserted. “Unfortunately, this is the perception of a lot of our graduates.”
The farmer and entrepreneur challenged the youth to venture into the agric sector and experience its opportunities.
“Where there are no facilities, there are opportunities. Go into vegetable farming for export and you will see how farmers are making money. The school is to cushion you mentally to establish yourself,” he urged.
Farming is now a very lucrative business which is fetching a lot of money for farmers, especially those who are into exportation and for that matter, unemployed graduates should go into farming, said Mr. Offei.
He cited government’s freeze on employment in the public sector as another factor which should push graduates into considering taking up employment in the agric sector.
The government has no intention of lifting the freeze on public sector employment anytime soon, with the IMF bailout still in full swing and government far short of meeting its set targets.
Ghana in 2016 went for an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of $918m from the IMF which came with certain conditions, one of which was the notorious freeze on government employment.
The freeze is still intact as well as a cutback on existing employees within the sector, a situation the astute entrepreneur believes could be disastrous for young unemployed people.
“For now, government has laid embargo on employment into the public sector and the graduates should therefore establish themselves by taking up jobs in farming,” he said.
Experts’ Views
Experts have severally alluded to the fact that the agric sector provided broad areas for graduates to take advantage of and decide what they wished to do.
They argue that graduates could also go into the production of exportable produce which means that agriculture is viable and very open, adding however, that the unattractiveness of the sector to the young people could be attributed to the culture of education.
And as a result, agriculture has suffered. If you are not using knowledge, information and technology, then you cannot really compete because without that, would not be able to apply and maximize yield, experts say.
Source, Prince Paul Amuzu/www.ritefmonline.org/princeamuzu667@gmail.com
