NEW AGRIC EXTENSION AGENTS PASS OUT
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture,
George Oduro says middle level agricultural training holds the key to enhanced agricultural
productivity in the country.
He said government recognizes agricultural
extension as an integral part of its policies for the sector but was worried
that for many years, there has been a shortfall in the number of such middle
level manpower thereby widening the Extension Agent-farmer ratio.
Mr. Oduro
made the statement in Kumasi at the 7th congregation of the three Colleges
of Agriculture under the mentorship of the University of Cape Coast.
These are the
Kwadaso, Ohawu and Pong-Tamale Colleges of Agriculture that offer Diploma in
General Agriculture and Animal Health and Production.
It was on the theme: “Effective
Middle Level Agricultural Training, the Key to the Transformation and Modernization
of the Country’s Agriculture”.
A total
of 248 students graduated with 28 of them attaining First Class Honuors. The Deputy Minister of Food and Agric said government
is committed to meeting international requirement of One Extension Agent to 500
farmers which currently stands at one Extension Agent to three thousand.
Mr. Oduro said, it is in pursuant of this
objective that government has recruited one thousand 200 Agricultural Extension
Agents to assist the over 200 thousand farmers participating in the “Planting
for Food and Jobs” campaign.
The Principal of
the Kwadaso College of Agriculture, Ebenezer Tawiah, reiterated
his earlier
appeal to the government and other stakeholder to help improve and expand the
College’s to enable it to train more competent middle level personnel for the
agric sector.
Mr. Tawiah noted that slow infrastructural development of the agric
institutions is contributing to low student intake and congestion. He appealed
to the government to as a matter urgency to rehabilitate one of the dormitories
of the Kwadaso Agric College that were abandoned in 2012.
The Provost of the
College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences of University of Cape Coast,
Professor Sam Amoah, encouraged the graduates to put their knowledge and skills
to work so as to propel growth in the agric sector and also contribute to the
progress of their alma matter in whichever way possible.
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