The Akufo-Addo led Government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with the Israeli government through AgroStudies of Israel has reached an agreement to offer about 200 Students to undergo Agrostudies internship.
The move is to offer the Ghanaian agriculture students’ opportunity to be trained in modern practices, especially in the areas of GreenHouse vegetable production to increase local production.
Under the agreement, the programmes, which started with 50 students in 2018 had increased to 200 in 2022 recruited from six tertiary institutions, including Kwadaso Agriculture College, University for Development studies, University of Ghana and University of Cape Coast.
While in Israel, the graduates will be attached to cooperative farms called Kibbutz, where they will work on the field for five days and be in the classroom for a day.
The Ghanaian graduates will be joined by other beneficiaries from other parts of Africa, Asia and South America.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, who was speaking at a brief ceremony to bid farewell to 200 agriculture students in Accra to Israel on the programme, said the Israeli paid internship for agriculture students will be cancelled should absconding of students continue.
According to him, the initiative was to enable selected agriculture students to acquire modern skills in the value-chain to help pass on the skills to others when they return after 11-months and not to escape in search of greener pastures.
Dr Akoto, noted although all the cohorts had been praised for their hard work, a few decided to abscond after their programme, adding that apart from the exposure and skills transfer, they were paid good money for the work on the farms every month.
The Minister said as part of measures to curtail the challenge, the beneficiaries would be required to sign a bond with a guarantor and parents who would be liable to pay GHC 7000 should the students abscond after the completion of the programme.
He said participating schools whose students absconded would be blacklisted from the programme.
Lawoetey Tettey, the Human and Resource Director of MoFA, on his behalf said the internship was life-changing experience and urged the students to open up and acquire knowledge, and skills and return to support the agriculture sector.
Emmanuel Asante, a beneficiary from Kwadaso Agriculture Collage, thanked the government for the opportunity and assured that they would return armed with farming technologies to help develop the country.
BY Daniel Bampoe