President of The Farmers Organization  Network Ghana (FONG), Dr. David King has called on Policy makers to put in incentives to make more young people go into Agribusiness.

He has called on the government to incorporate a 20% profit-sharing arrangement for service personnel as part of their policy for assigning National Service Scheme (NSS) personels to engage in agricultural work, where they can benefit from a portion of the profits generated from agricultural produce.

Dr. King Believes this will attract more young people to go into Agribusiness and will help bost the economy of the country. He made this call at the 2023 edition of the virtual Youth Workers Roundtable Discussion organized by Youth Arise Organisation.

“A lot of our young people are going into Galamsey because they find it more lucrative and this is worrying. I believe giving a 20% share of the profit made from farm produce to young people will motivate them to keep working hard in the Agric sector”, he said.

“We were working on a project in Kumasi where we shared the profit with the students. We gave them 1/3 of the proceeds from the project, the student won’t go home even on vacation they stay back and work because they were making money into their pockets. some even used the money they got to pay their school fees without relying on their parents”, he added.

Agreeing to this policy proposal, Executive Director for the Youth Alliance for Agricultural Transformation (YAFAT), Saraphine Makafui Sadziafa said “this is a brilliant idea that can get most young people interested and committed in Agribusiness and also get something to cater for themselves”

“As a National Service Personel myself, I believe this idea will get NSS personnels who serve in the agricultural sector to commit to the Government farms and to make some good money for themselves”, she said.

Also on the panel was a Senior Agriculture Economist at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. Charles Ayueboro Adama and Mr. Michael Gariba, Chief Executive officer of Fruit Masters, A fast growing international Fruit and vegetable producing and Supplying company.

Moderating the panel discussion was the Global Chief Executive officer of Youth Arise Organisation, Moses Baffour Awuah.

The theme for this year’s Youth Workers Roundtable Discussion was the urgency of Developing green skills for a sustainable world. It was supported by Policy LINK, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program.

The Youth Workers Round Table Discussions is a Virtual and an in person meeting organized by the Youth Arise Organization to bring young people and experts together to discuss crucial issues about young people and how they can contribute to solving an identified societal problem.