Food and Agriculture Minister Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna has reiterated the need for an extensive deployment of tech-based innovations into the agricultural sector, so as to make it more attractive for the youth.
He said: “As a country, we will need to improve technology in agriculture to make agri-businesses more attractive to the youth.
“This is one way that we can bounce back the fortunes of the dominant economic sector to support socio-economic growth.”
The minister, who was speaking at the launch of Kosmos Innovation Centre—a corporate social investment programme of the oil giant—in Accra, however indicated that such a feat can only be realised when private sector businesses decide to plough back some of their profits into such laudable social intervention initiatives.
The agricultural sector had long been the national economy’s mainstay, but now plays second-fiddle to services and industry with regard to the sectors’ contribution to Gross Domestic Product.
Concerned experts have attributed the sector’s downslide to lack of innovation in enticing investors and youthful expertise given the perennial lack of access to funding by sector actors to expand agri-business ventures.
And the sector minister believes that the initiative from Kosmos Energy will whip-up interest and prepare the country’s youth to become ‘agri-preneurs’ and successful future leaders.
He indicated: “This initiative will lead to a positive turnaround of enterprises in the sector, and it is a dividend-based investment”.
The Kosmos Innovation Centre seeks to leverage innovation to provide applicable commercial solutions to the country’s socio-economic challenges by using a market-based approach that facilitates private sector enterprise and entrepreneurship.
For a start, the KIC will focus on the nexus between information and telecommunications technology (ICT) and agriculture, for the purpose of inspiring entrepreneurs to transform the agricultural sector.
The programme will function in a three-pronged approach — pool bright minds across various fields to network and share ideas through collaboration; instigate innovation-focused competitions that will encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to develop tech-based and viable solutions by way of incubation; and cushion promising business ideas with capital investment and technical assistance in the interest of acceleration.
Vice President and Country Manager of Kosmos Energy, Joe Mensah, indicated that the initiative aims to increase youthful interest in agriculture: “A dominant economic area that is now seen as an unrewarding enterprise, despite its potential for economic growth”.
He added: “KIC will leverage local partnerships for expertise and resources as well as information-sharing and provision of seed financing and technical assistance to encourage the application of new/existing innovation to sector problems.
“The first area to be addressed by the programme will be the use of ICT-based innovations in agriculture, hopefully inspiring budding entrepreneurs to use technology to transform the dominant agric sector.”
Mr. Mensah stressed the module for the agriculture sector will be used as a template that will be applied to transform other critical sectors of the economy.
Source: thebftonline