The astute farmer, John Dumelo has urged the youth to observe the 3Ps; Passion, Patience, and Perseverance to achieve maximum output in the agriculture sector.
According to him, farming or agriculture must be treated as “Go Pro” as the other high esteemed professions in the economy.
He mentioned this when delivering his guest speaking address at the Agrepreneur Conference on the theme: Building an Enabling Environment for the Youth in Entrepreneurship, organized by Local Nugs women’s commission in collaboration with Ekumfi Fruits and Juices LTD at the University of Cape Coast.
Farmer Dumelo explained that most of the youth think agriculture is about preparing the land, planting, and harvesting without taking into account all the good agricultural practices. “To be able to succeed in agribusiness one must be passion-driven, have patience for the crops or animals, and persevere when failed at the first trial”.
Citing his experience as an example to the youth, he said “my goat and snail farm failed woefully because I invested heavily in them without having any knowledge in livestock, but with passion, patient and perseverance here I am today, so I will entreat you all to start small with the little amount you have, make sure you have adequate knowledge about the particular field you want to venture and treat it as a business with passion, have patience and perseverance”.
Explaining the opportunities in the agric sector to the youth, he noted according to statistics from Agricultural Development Bank, Africa imports 30 billion dollars wealth of agro products into their countries, and by 2025 Africa will be importing 110 billion dollars worth of food products into the continent, so they should identify an area and create worth for themselves.
“Every year Ghana spend billions of dollars on rice importation, you can take an advantage of this to produce rice or be an aggregator to buy paddy rice from the farmers, process and package them for the market. By so doing you will be creating employment and reducing fractional importation of rice”, Dumelo said.
He entreated the youth who are already in the sector and those who want to go into the sector to change the narrative by adding value to their produce. Farmers are noted for selling farm produce in their raw state without value addition and this earns them low income. To appreciate the worth that agriculture gives, it is critical to do processing and packaging.
