Cabinet has approved a plan to assist graduates from the country's universities and agricultural institutions with seed money to start agricultural ventures. Mr Francis Aidoo, a director of the Human Resource Development and Management Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), who announced this at the weekend, said government is making efforts to entice the youth to go into agriculture.

He said the difficulty in land acquisition and access to credit facilities are matters of great concern to government as they affect the work of stakeholders in making agriculture the mainstay of the economy. Speaking at the fourth Hall Week and 35th Anniversary celebration of the Ohawu Agricultural College, Mr Aidoo said everything is being made to encourage the youth to take over from the ageing farmers.

The Director said though in countries such as the US and Germany where farmers form just about four per cent of the population, they are able to feed their people, because of the conducive environment coupled with the availability of land, ready market and mechanised production facilities. "Though 60 per cent of our population is in agriculture, we cannot feed ourselves adequately because of the many bottlenecks that hamper the growth of the sector."