Agricultural activities has been one of the most extensive work in Africa especially in Ghana. Majority of the world’s population is heavily dependent on Agricultural produce making it a means to survival. However, a relatively large fraction of the population settle for white-collar jobs leaving farming activities to the few who reside in rural areas.
Most people find white-collar jobs attractive; the feeling and thrill of sitting behind the desk in front of a desktop, meeting clients and attending functions have made the youth fail to see that agriculture has an equal related strategy as well which is equally profitable and not focus on the aspect of working tirelessly on a field under an unfavourable sun for hours. World Farmers Organization 2017 records that globally, the average age of farmers is 60 years old and young people are increasingly gravitating towards non-agricultural careers.
Agriculture has always been the key to development and the rise of human civilization considering the kind of tools, machines, equipment and fertilizers used presently. This development has enabled the human population to grow many times larger than what the initial hunting and gathering stage could sustain. As the expansion of the human territory spread abroad, diversified and new methods of agriculture has sprang up to keep up with the pace of the human race expansion for sustainability to latter. It is for the survival of the human race which also led the Europeans down to Africa to carry away people as slaves to work on various plantations abroad. This is to say more hands are needed in the agriculture sector to sustain the human race.
For the record of the situation of economic crisis in 2014 which lasted for shows that agriculture remains central development (Food and agriculture Organization – FAO) in a 2013 research in a UN Statistical year book, more than 60% of the world’s population depends on agriculture for survival. In Ghana, 68% of the population live in rural areas with agriculture contributing to 54% of the GDP and accounting for 40% of export earnings. Agriculture in the country provides 90% of the country’s food needs with an average of 40% of the population working in the agriculture sector.
Despite the dependency and non-sustainability of agriculture within the world economy, the sector also records a high incidence of unpaid child labour starting from the ages between five and seven years old, a sector with the youngest minimum work entry age. The whole world is dependent on agriculture therefore we should invest more into the industry and venture more into agriculture based businesses for the sustainability of the human race.
