George Oduro – Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture (M)
A TOTAL of 70 Ghanaian agriculture graduates are to be selected from among 120 applicants for an agricultural training program in Israel.
The 70 when selected are to depart Ghana in September 2019 and return by August 2020.
When they arrive in Israel, they are expected to be attached to cooperative farms called kibbutz, where they would work for five days on the field and one day in a classroom.
The training program which is a partnership between Ghana and the State of Israel, is for a duration of 11 months.
In 2018, Ghana had the opportunity to send 50 of its citizens to Israel for the training program.
The increase in Ghana’s quota to 70 in 2019, says the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Shani Cooper-Zubida, was based on the excellent conduct of the first batch of Ghanaians sent to Israel.
The 70 to be selected are part of graduates who have already undergone a three-month training in greenhouse technology.
They are among a total of 1,600 students from Asia, South America and Africa who would be attached to host farmers who are required to train them in various forms of agricultural practices such as irrigation, aquaculture, vegetable farming, among others.
Speaking at the interview and selection session on Thursday, June 13, 2019 at the Agriculture Resource Centre in Accra, the Israeli Ambassador urged that farming should be seen as an economic activity that generates wealth.
She said trainees should not go to Israel and take farming as just “working with hand” but must think outside the box and see things from an economic perspective.
According to her, it was a great opportunity to receive training in Israel as a farmer, saying those going would return to Ghana and “you are going to be an Island of success in Ghana.”
Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, George Oduro, indicated that President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government was pushing hard to get 100 Ghanaians to visit Israel annually through the program.
He noted that visas and air tickets for the 70 would be pre-financed but that beneficiaries would pay back when they start earning salaries in Israel.
The Deputy Minister indicated that based on the training program, Government has established greenhouse villages in the country.
He therefore warned beneficiaries not to overstay their visas in Israel after the training program.
BY Melvin Tarlue