Dr Yaw Adu-Ampomah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, has entreated
the youth to venture into Cocoa cultivation instead of waiting for non-existent
white collar jobs.
He urged
especially the young graduates who are looking for employment opportunities in
the government or with the private sector to create their own employment by
going into Cocoa production.
Dr Adu-Ampomah
made the call at the maiden Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Lecture on the theme:
“Sustaining Ghana’s Market Competitiveness through Cocoa" in Accra.
The maiden
lecture organised by the University Of Ghana, Business School in collaboration
with the Mampong Akuapem Traditional Council was to celebrate the achievement
and legacies of Tetteh Quarshie and to institute the lecture in his memory.
Tetteh Quarshie
brought Cocoa pod from Fernando-Po, now Equatorial Guinea to Ghana in 1879 to
propagate the economic fortunes of the country by establishing the first Cocoa
plantation at the Mampong Akuapem in the Eastern Region.
He envisaged that
in future, graduates of Agriculture, Science, Accounting, and Banking would
prefer to own and manage their own Cocoa farms rather than seek banking jobs.
“A day will
come when young men and women who hold degrees in engineering or any other will
own and manage their own Cocoa farm, not because they have no option but
because they regard farming as a more lucrative enterprise,” he added.
He said the Cocoa
industry is the backbone of the country’s economy, having its footprint in
every aspect of life in Ghana.
He noted that the
commodity plays a major role in national developmental efforts, providing jobs
for millions of Ghanaians while earning foreign exchange and tax revenue in
return.
Dr
Adu-Ampomah said notwithstanding the progress made in the industry, it still
faces certain challenge including deforestation, complicated land tenure
system, denuded cocoa trees and aging farmers.
He said
innovations were needed to develop the Cocoa sector to reduce the deforestation
and habitat conversion, maintain forest tress species to favour species
richness.
Former President John Agyekum
Kufour expressed gratitude to the organisers for instituting a memorial lecture
in honour of Tetteh Quarshie.
He said he does not
know what the country would have been without cocoa, since it helped immensely
in the development of the country.
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