Orientation sessions for qualified trainees of Ghana Export Promotion Authority’s (GEPA) Youth in Export Programme ended last Friday with the final shortlisted 20 applicants taken through various processes for phase one of the programme.

The participants will be posted to various farmer-exporters in Eastern, Volta, Central and Greater Accra Regions for a period of 6 months.

They are expected to gain practical knowledge on class farm practices most especially on how to cultivate and export agricultural produce; how to build and manage their respective farm businesses as well as learning various agronomy practices among other things.

Upon successful completion of the training programme, trainees will be supported by GEPA to acquire an acre of land each and supplied with seeds and required inputs to cultivate under the supervision of their respective trainers before starting their own farm business.

Organized in collaboration with the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), the Programme aims to encourage the youth to go into agricultural crop production and take up farming as a career by having them learn from seasoned farmers who export their farm produce.

The programme is expected to help boost the export of agricultural crops, which is in line with GEPA’s mandate to develop, facilitate and promote Non-Traditional Exports.

“It also seeks to motivate the youth to become entrepreneurs by having them understudy seasoned farmer-exporters so they can build and manage businesses of their own”, the Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare said.

Director of Research of YEA, Mr. Nana Yaw Nsiah, noted that the initiative is expected to provide the youth with direct and indirect jobs, thus it is imperative to render the needed support in this regard.

Most of the applicants will go into pineapple and cassava farming as well as chili.

A total of 67 shortlisted applications were received for the Youth in Export Programme and after final evaluation, 20 successful applicants were finally selected for the programme. The Authority has insisted that applicants who failed to make to the final round will not be left out as some other initiatives will soon be rolled out.