Feeding the future – The Business & Financial Times

By Abubakar Mohammed LAWAL

Ghana stands at a critical juncture, facing a significant “youth unemployment” challenge while holding vast untapped potential in its agricultural sector.

With youth (aged 15-24) unemployment rates reported as high as 34.4% in Q3 2025 according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), and over 1.3 million young people classified as not in employment, education, or training (NEET) during the same period (GSS, 2025), this crisis drives rural-to-urban migration, straining cities and depleting rural labor essential for food production.

Yet, agriculture remains a cornerstone of the Ghanaian economy, contributing approximately 20-21% to GDP in recent years (World Bank, 2024; GSS data via various reports, 2025), employing a substantial portion of the workforce, and offering pathways to sustainable growth, food security, and job creation.

By repositioning unemployed youth as key drivers in a modernized agricultural sector, Ghana can harness their energy, innovation, and demographic dividend, where over 57% of the population is under 25, to build a resilient, prosperous future. Government initiatives, such as those championing youth employment through agriculture via expanded irrigation, mechanization, and infrastructure (Ministry of Food and Agriculture [MoFA], 2025.), alongside training programs targeting thousands annually, underscore this commitment.

Key findings

• Agro-processing and tourism sectors hold high potential for youth job creation, as they demand low- to medium-skilled labor and can generate significant employment through value addition (Brookings Institution, 2021.).
• Only about 5% of Ghanaian youth engage in agro-processing, revealing enormous untapped opportunities for value addition and economic diversification (Heifer International, 2021, cited in NYA reports).
• Government efforts include creating an enabling environment for private-sector-led agribusiness, with investments in irrigation expansion, farm-to-market roads, storage facilities, and mechanization to boost productivity and appeal (MoFA, 2025.).
• Programs like those under the National Youth Authority (NYA) aim to train approximately 24,000 youth annually for five years in agricultural business management, financial literacy, and employable skills (NYA, 2024).
• Despite agriculture’s centrality, only 5% of Ghanaian youth engaged in the sector participate in agro-processing, the lowest rate among 11 African countries surveyed, highlighting enormous untapped scope for job creation and value addition. (The Business & Financial Times, 2021).
• Resilient crops like cassava provide extensive employment across their value chains, from farming to processing into gari, fufu, starch, and bioethanol, supporting both domestic needs and industrial uses (University of Ghana study, 2017.).

Background and shifting perceptions of agriculture

Youth unemployment in Ghana, exacerbated by limited formal job opportunities, pushes many young people toward urban areas in search of work, worsening urban pressures while leaving rural agriculture underserved (INCLUDE Platform, 2021). Traditionally, farming has been viewed as labor-intensive, low-income, and outdated, associated with subsistence rather than opportunity (World Bank, 2020). This perception deters youth participation, despite agriculture’s role in employing over 30-40% of the workforce historically and its potential for modernization.

However, emerging trends show promise: surveys indicate that a majority of youth (around 76.7% in some studies) express willingness to engage in agriculture or agribusiness when presented with modern, technology-driven models (The Conversation, 2025). Rebranding agriculture through innovation such as precision farming, digital tools, and entrepreneurship can reverse this trend and make it attractive.

The untapped potential of modern agriculture

Modern agriculture, incorporating Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies, shifts from traditional methods to sustainable, efficient practices appealing to tech-savvy youth. This includes drone-based monitoring, data analytics for crop management, mobile apps for market access, and supply chain innovations. Young entrepreneurs are already succeeding by using digital platforms to optimize farm operations and reach buyers (LinkedIn post by Joseph Opoku Gakpo, 2025).

Agro-processing stands out for its job-multiplier effects, transforming raw produce into higher-value goods like packaged foods, juices, and industrial materials, extending benefits into manufacturing and services (Brookings Institution, 2021.). This sector’s growth could absorb many unemployed youth, aligning with national goals for economic diversification beyond primary commodities.

Ease of starting an agriculture business: focus on cassava and pineapple

Ghana’s tropical climate and fertile soils favor accessible crops with strong market demand and low entry barriers, especially with government support for inputs, land access, and extension services.

• CASSAVA: A staple and industrial crop, cassava thrives in varied conditions with modest inputs. Its value chain creates diverse jobs: cultivation, harvesting, processing into gari or fufu for local markets, starch production for textiles/pharmaceuticals, and bioethanol. This versatility ensures steady demand, reducing risks for new entrants and supporting food security and exports (University of Ghana, 2017.).
• PINEAPPLE: Ghana ranks among global producers, with production around 688,000 metric tons in 2023 and exports valued at nearly $5 million in recent years (FAO/Tridge data, 2023). The crop’s shorter cycle offers quicker returns, with opportunities in fresh sales, juice production, dried snacks, and jams for local and export markets (e.g., to Europe). Established export infrastructure aids market entry for youth-led ventures.
• Entry barriers remain relatively low through initiatives providing seeds, fertilizers, and

technical aid via bodies like NYA and MoFA.

Government support for youth in agriculture

The Government of Ghana prioritizes youth-inclusive agriculture through targeted policies:

• The Government of Ghana, through Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and National Youth Authority (NYA), has implemented policies and programmes to encourage youth participation in agriculture. These initiatives aim to reduce unemployment, limit rural-urban migration, and improve food security under programmes such as the Feed Ghana Programme (FGP) (MoFA, 2024).
• Government support focuses on several key areas. First, an enabling environment has been created through reduced regulatory barriers, tax incentives, and private-sector partnerships, making agribusiness more attractive to young entrepreneurs (MoFA, 2023). Second, investments in infrastructure such as irrigation systems, feeder roads, and cold storage facilities support year-round farming and reduce post-harvest losses, which remain high in Ghana (FAO, 2022).
• Additionally, mechanization support is provided through subsidized access to tractors and equipment via Farmers’ Service Centres, helping to reduce manual labour and increase productivity (MoFA, 2023). Skills development is also prioritised, with training programmes led by the NYA and partners equipping youth with agribusiness, financial, and entrepreneurial skills (NYA, 2024). Complementary initiatives such as YouStart initiative provide funding, mentoring, and technical support to young agripreneurs (GEA, 2023).
• Overall, these interventions aim to modernise agriculture, integrate youth into value chains, and promote sustainable employment and economic growth.

What we need to do to get there

To fully realise the potential of youth participation in agriculture in Ghana, a deliberate and coordinated multi-stakeholder approach is required. This involves strengthening financial inclusion, enhancing skills development, improving market systems, and addressing structural constraints that hinder youth engagement in the sector.

First, there is a critical need to scale access to finance for young people in agriculture. Limited access to credit remains one of the most significant barriers preventing youth from entering or expanding within the agricultural value chain. Financial institutions often perceive agriculture as high-risk, which leads to stringent collateral requirements that young people cannot meet.

Therefore, youth-targeted financial products such as low-interest loans, grants, and blended finance models should be expanded through partnerships between commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and government initiatives such as YouStart. These interventions can help de-risk agricultural investments and encourage youth-led agribusiness ventures (World Bank, 2020).

Second, it is essential to modernise education and training systems to reflect the evolving nature of agriculture. Traditional agricultural education in many institutions remains heavily theoretical and does not adequately equip students with practical and technological skills.

Updating Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and university curricula to include emerging areas such as drone technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), precision agriculture, digital marketing, and agribusiness management will better prepare youth for modern agricultural practices. Additionally, integrating agribusiness incubation and entrepreneurship training into academic programmes will foster innovation and self-employment among graduates (FAO, 2019).

Third, efforts must be made to strengthen market linkages to ensure that young farmers can access reliable and profitable markets. Many youth in agriculture face challenges related to price volatility, lack of market information, and weak bargaining power.

The deployment of digital platforms that provide real-time market prices, facilitate aggregation of produce, and support direct connections between farmers and buyers can significantly improve market efficiency. Furthermore, providing support for export certification and quality standards will enable youth to access international markets, thereby increasing their income potential (OECD, 2021).

In addition, there is a need to accelerate value addition within the agricultural sector. Most young people remain engaged in primary production, which yields relatively low returns. Promoting agro-processing through subsidies, access to affordable processing equipment (such as gari fryers, juice extractors, and solar dryers), and technical training can help youth move up the value chain. Value addition not only increases profitability but also reduces post-harvest losses and creates employment opportunities along the supply chain (MoFA, 2022).

Moreover, the establishment of structured mentorship networks is vital for nurturing youth in agribusiness. Many young entrepreneurs lack the experience, guidance, and industry connections necessary for business success. By pairing them with established agribusiness leaders through formal mentorship programmes, they can gain practical insights, improve decision-making, and build valuable professional networks. Mentorship has been shown to significantly enhance business survival rates and growth prospects among young entrepreneurs (IFAD, 2018).

Finally, addressing the issue of land tenure security is fundamental to increasing youth participation in agriculture. Access to land remains one of the most significant structural barriers for young people in Ghana, particularly due to customary land ownership systems and high costs of land acquisition.

The establishment of land banks and the provision of long-term lease arrangements specifically designed for youth can help overcome this challenge. Secure land tenure not only encourages investment in agriculture but also improves productivity and sustainability (USAID, 2020).

In conclusion, achieving a vibrant, youth-driven agricultural sector in Ghana requires integrated policy interventions that address financial, educational, market, and structural constraints. By implementing these strategies, Ghana can harness the energy, innovation, and entrepreneurial potential of its youth to transform agriculture into a modern and attractive sector.

Practical takeaway

Ghana’s youth, energetic, digitally native, and ambitious are not a burden; they are the country’s greatest renewable resource. In 2025, more than 1.3 million young ghanaians aged 15–24 were classified as not in education, employment, or training (neet), representing 21.5% of the entire age cohort, while youth accounted for seven out of every ten unemployed persons nationwide.

This demographic dividend, combined with agriculture’s proven resilience (contributing 22.8% to gdp and recording 6.8% growth in 2025, outpacing the national 6% gdp expansion), positions young people as the decisive force for national transformation.

By focusing on high-potential crops such as cassava and pineapple, the nation can create immediate, scalable opportunities across full value chains from cultivation and harvesting to processing, packaging, marketing, and export. Real-life examples prove this works. Elizabeth King-Konu, a trained accountant, left her corporate job to start pineapple farming on just one acre.

Through determination and smart business planning, she has scaled to a 20-acre plantation that now produces over 200,000 pineapples annually, generating significant income and inspiring countless young people to view farming as a profitable career. Similarly, Eric Dotse, who abandoned a banking career despite holding an accounting degree, started with only GHS10,000 and built a 40-acre mixed farm in the Volta region, with cassava as a cornerstone crop; today his operation is a thriving agribusiness supplying local and industrial markets.

Investing in infrastructure and mechanization will amplify these successes. The government’s flagship feed ghana programme (fgp, 2025–2028) is explicitly designed for this purpose. It targets the creation of at least 900,000 direct jobs and 1.7 million indirect jobs over 2.6 million in total by 2028, while increasing the number of youth and women engaged in agri-enterprises or service provision from 2.7 million in 2024 to 4.3 million.

Key interventions include expanding irrigation schemes to thousands of hectares for year-round production, establishing farmers’ service centres (fscs) for affordable access to tractors, planters, and harvesters, and building modern storage and packhouses to reduce post-harvest losses (currently 16–62% for key crops).

Cassava production is prioritised for massive scaling, targeting self-sufficiency rising from 95% in 2024 to 153% by 2028, with output jumping from 28.5 million mt to 62.7 million mt directly creating labour-intensive opportunities in cultivation, gari processing, starch extraction, and bioethanol.

Equipping young people with modern skills and accessible capital completes the equation. The national youth authority (nya) continues its commitment to training 24,000 young people annually in agricultural business management, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and employable skills. Complementary programmes such as the harnessing agricultural productivity and prosperity for youth (happy) initiative, youstart grants, and the national women and youth in vegetable project provide start-up capital, incubation hubs, and mentorship.

These have already produced tangible results; for instance, Bintu Zakaria in Ghana’s Northern region transitioned from poverty and unfulfilled dreams of agricultural engineering to operating a successful food-processing venture after receiving hands-on training, a driver’s licence, and machinery-repair skills through wfp-mastercard foundation support.

When these elements converge, crop focus, infrastructure, mechanization, skills, and finance, the outcomes are transformative: youth unemployment can be slashed at scale, food security achieved through self-sufficiency in staples like cassava, and sustainable GDP growth accelerated (the fgp explicitly targets 6% annual agricultural GDP growth while reducing import dependency and boosting non-traditional exports).

A collaborative ecosystem is the final, indispensable ingredient. Government agencies (mofa, nya, gss), private investors, financial institutions (via blended finance and girsal schemes), educational bodies, and development partners (wfp, mastercard foundation, jica) must work in concert. The fgp’s public-private partnership model for farmers’ service centres and farm banks, alongside youth-focused roadshows and cooperative formation, shows exactly how shared resources de-risk ventures and multiply impact for young entrepreneurs.

With the right policies, sustained investment, and collective will, today’s unemployed youth will become tomorrow’s agribusiness leaders, feeding Ghana, creating millions of jobs, generating wealth, and securing a prosperous, self-reliant future for generations to come.

REFERENCES

Brookings Institution. (2021). Addressing youth unemployment in Ghana by supporting the agro-processing and tourism sectors. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/addressing-youth-unemployment-in-ghana-by-supporting-the-agro-processing-and-tourism-sectors/

The Business & Financial Times. (2021). Heifer International report: Only 5% of youth are into agric processing.

Dotse, E. (2025). Eric Dotse cassava farming journey interview [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz9Q0QtckAg

Elizabeth King-Konu pineapple success story interviews and features. (2025–2026). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhbeke2s1-0

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2019). Youth and agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities and challenges. Rome: FAO.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2022). Reducing post-harvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rome: FAO.

Ghana Enterprises Agency. (2023). YouStart programme report. Accra: Ghana Enterprises Agency.

Ghana Statistical Service. (2025). Labour market reports (various quarters) and Q3 2025 quarterly labour force survey highlights.

Ghana Statistical Service & Xinhua. (2026). Ghana records 6-pct economic growth in 2025. https://english.news.cn/20260318/af4c3e5c964c4c50b644e8afd0ccff36/c.html

Heifer International. (2021). Report on youth in agro-processing.

International Fund for Agricultural Development. (2018). Creating opportunities for rural youth. Rome: IFAD.

Ministry of Food and Agriculture. (2022). Agriculture in Ghana: Facts and figures. Accra: Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Ministry of Food and Agriculture. (2023). Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Phase II policy document. Accra: Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Ministry of Food and Agriculture. (2025a). Ghana champions youth employment through agriculture. https://mofa.gov.gh/site/index.php/media-centre/latest-news/item/706-ghana-champions-youth-employment-through-agriculture

Ministry of Food and Agriculture. (2025b). Feed Ghana Programme (FGP): A four-year agricultural transformation programme (2025–2028). https://mofa.gov.gh/site/images/pdf/Feed_Ghana_Programme.pdf

National Youth Authority. (2024). Youth in agriculture training programme report (with ongoing announcements 2024–2026). https://www.nya.gov.gh

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2021). Enhancing market access for smallholder farmers. Paris: OECD Publishing.

United States Agency for International Development. (2020). Land tenure and youth access in Ghana. Washington, DC: USAID.

University of Ghana. (2017). Study on cassava value chain.

World Bank. (2020). Youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Agriculture as a pathway. Washington, DC: World Bank.

World Bank. (2024). Various reports on youth employment and GDP data.

World Food Programme. (2025). Back to the farm: Africa’s youth power up food security (Bintu Zakaria case). https://www.wfp.org/stories/back-farm-africas-youth-power-food-security

>>> The writer is an accounting graduate, Farmer and ICAG candidate with a strong passion for youth development, business growth, and agriculture. He is committed to empowering young people with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities needed to thrive in today’s dynamic economic environment. With a growing interest in data analytics, he leverages insights to support informed decision-making and sustainable enterprise development.

. Contact: +233 542 218 169 or [email protected] and www.linkedin.com/in/abubakar-mohammed-lawal

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