As part of their efforts to fight unemployment in the country, 38 youth from across the country have benefited from ECOWAS youth training on biofertilizer production and business development at the Soil Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SRI).

The training focuses on building capabilities that will enable the youth to manufacture biofertilizers that will contribute to the agricultural sector of Ghana.

Director of the Soil Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SRI) explained that this training is going to create jobs for young people in the country.

“So, at the African Union youth commission, they decided what we can do to solve youth unemployment in Africa and realised that agriculture forming a greater proportion of our GDP can be used to solve our problem.

“And if we do that, how do we approach it, the research institutions have over the years done quality research and they have come out with products which are underutilized.

“But we have realized that if these products are put to good use, it will help transform economies in Africa and provide opportunities for the youth to have employment,” he said.

He also observed how Ghanaians have developed taste for foreign agricultural products.

“We have looked at many fertilizers on the Ghanaian market and when you analyse them and look at the nutrient composition, our farm yard manure, the ones that come from our own environment are higher in terms of nutrients than the ones that we import from foreign countries

And we rather spend money to buy foreign fertilizers. They might look good but our farm manure are better in terms of nutrients,” he said.

Research scientist at the Soil Research Institute, Dr. Fuseini Issaka mentioned that the biofertilizers are going to contribute to the increase in rice production.

“Bio fertilizers have the ability to enhance rice production, especially Azola. Azola is a bio fertilizer that can be found in the whole country and it has been tested and proven that it can enhance the production of rice

“So we are equipping these youths with these technologies so that they can go into mass production,” he said.

Dr. Emmanuel Dugan is also a research scientist at the Soil Research Institute.

“Government can support the training of the youth so that they can go into mass production so that it can be used in rice and maize production. This will solve our food problems,” he said.

The training is an initiative of the Soil Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) funded by ECOWAS.