Youth urged to venture into cocoa farming

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) has urged Ghanaian youth to venture into cocoa farming, indicating it has good prospects for a sustainable life. In a public forum Wednesday in Accra to among other things identify the challenges in cocoa production and find solutions to them, the General Secretary of ICU, Solomon Kotei, stressed the importance of having the youth in cocoa farming. He explained that cocoa farming has a high sustainability potential because it is usually a family business that is passed on from generation to generation. He added that it is not always the case that children working on cocoa farms are abused, noting that they are simply going about their parents’ business which they may eventually own. He, however, observed that there are some challenges the youth face and will continue to face even if they have interest in cocoa farming. “At our Twifopraso meeting, it became clear that the youth are one willing to go into farming but they do not have anything to survive or sustain on before whichever farm they undertake begin to fruit and they have a bigger challenge with who is leasing the lands for them,” he observed. Mr. Kotei noted the cocoa sector used to be the biggest employer in Africa, employing as many as 137, 000 people. He thus urged the government to help make cocoa farming attractive by using technology which will not only make work easier but increase yield. By Abigail Adeyemi|editors.3news.com|Ghana