Nov 02, 2012 at 2:49pm

President John Mahama has pledged his government will expand the Youth in Agriculture programme to boost growth in the agricultural sector.

He noted that the success of the National Service Scheme (NSS) youth in agriculture programme across the country is impressive.

Speaking at the 28th National Farmers Day celebration at Abokobi in the Ga East municipality in the Greater Accra Region, President Mahama stated that it delights him to see the youth improving their lives through agriculture.

“An increasing number of our youth are seeing agriculture as a profitable and attractive venture and are therefore taking to agriculture. The Youth in Agriculture programme has been a remarkable success and government intends to expand it,” he said.

He commended the National Service Scheme (NSS) for venturing into projects in the agric sector “and the interests they are generating amongst our young people and National Service men in agriculture.”

The President further outlined government policies for the Agric sector saying, “it is the commitment of this government to sustain this achievement in the agric sector by continuous acceleration of its development.”

He revealed that in the second term of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration if voted back into power, the economic transformation of Ghana will be hinged on agricultural modernization as a major pillar for economic advancement.

“This pillar will be propelled by two main strategies. The first involves the implementation of the food and agricultural development policy which we popularly call FASDEP and the corresponding investment plan as detailed in our medium term agricultural sector investment plan,” he explained.

President Mahama added that “the key elements of this strategy will include transforming the agric sector from a resourced based to a technology based industry.”


By: Citifmonline.com/Ghana