Public Affairs Manager of Blue Skies Foundation, Alistair Djametey, says the Blue Skies Foundation is committed to a long-term strategic approach to building awareness on food security amid global trends like climate change and aging farming populations.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Blue Skies School Farm Competition 2022, he noted that the idea to come up with such a competition was to invigorate the minds of young Ghanaians to see the opportunities the agricultural sector provides along its value chain.

He stated that with agriculture becoming undesirable due to the various bottlenecks from farm to industry, this project is to help the youth especially discover what the future holds in the agricultural sector and shaping it to ensure Ghana’s food security in the future.

“And this is a project that came out because we did a bit of research, you know, Blue Skies has a foundation that’s into building schools and providing support for local communities. We went into our own schools, we were trying to find out from the kids from the various schools as to what they want to become in the future and when anybody by accident says that they want to become a farmer then everybody begins to laugh.

“And as a business that is into agricultural processing we feel that it doesn’t give a very good image in terms of our sustainability. So we took the initiative not to get people to engage in activities that will supply Blue Skies but we think that we need a change of mindset,” he said.

The project that began with 12 schools is now operating in 104 schools, and with Kosmos Innovation Centre and the Mastercard Foundation coming onboard, Mr. Djametey, is optimistic that Blue Skies will now be able to reach out to a wider audience.

 “We are not looking back on this particular project because this country cannot succeed; in fact I’ve been saying that all our socioeconomic or industrial revolution plans will never see any light of day if we do not invest appropriately in agriculture. And this programme is not just to get young people, but it’s also to advocate for change in policies, change in mindset.

“Like I said in my welcome address, this is a country that for Christ’s sake cannot feed ourselves yet we do not do agricultural science as a core examinable subject where everybody goes through it and makes part of their life. So we think that we need to rethink this whole process. So we think if we can get the young ones to understand the need for us to grow our own crop and produce our own food.

“Probably in the future we’ll have some of these young guys becoming huge farmers that will produce enough to feed industry. So what we need in our industrial revolution is a robust agricultural system that will feed into industry for the industries to create the jobs that we’re seeking,” he said.

The Executive Director of KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, also expressed the company’s willingness to continuously support the programme as part of their initiative to develop entrepreneurial minds in Ghana.

He noted that while the company has often concentrated on empowering youth through entrepreneurship within the agricultural sector at the tertiary level, this project affords them the opportunity to tap into even younger minds.

He stated that “At KIC, we believe in the potential to be changemakers and active drivers of Ghana’s development. We strongly believe agriculture has the potential to increase Ghana’s GDP rate and reduce unemployment drastically when innovation is applied, and having a long term strategic approach to engaging youth in agriculture is a good place to start.”