Amongst the best solutions to youth unemployment today is the greater involvement of the youth in agriculture.

However, most young people in Ghana are shying away from farming because of the negative perceptions such as farming is tedious, underpaid, amongst others. But that did not deter Dwomor Boahen who is a diploma holder.

He fell in love with farming when he was 18 years and has been cultivating cocoa for the past 10 years.

“My parents were farmers. We used to think that farming was a punishment when we were young. But Fairtrade changed my perspective. Fairtrade set up a committee here in Boakyeasua in the Ashanti region to train farmers, so I used to follow my father to their meetings. I was about 18 years old and I learnt that farming is actually a business,” he said.

One major challenge identified in the agricultural sector is insufficient access to knowledge, relevant information and education.

To this end, Mr. Boahen had to further his education to equip himself with the skills the average cocoa farmer can appreciate.

“I have a diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast. I majored in education to equip myself with skills that would help me in teaching my colleague farmers. By God’s grace, I am the lead advocate for child rights protection. I’ve been to few radio stations to speak on ending child labour. We’ve also visited schools to engage the pupils. Sometimes, we meet with the farmers and the community to engage them on good farming practices,” he stated.

 “Access to markets for the average farmer is becoming even more difficult these days due to the growing international influence of supermarkets and the rigorous standards of their supply chains”, he noted.

Mr. Dwomor confirmed that he’s aware of this barrier and the challenges it brings to him and his fellow farmers. Hence, he’s grateful to Fairtrade for coming to their aid.

“When I first started farming, capital to start with was a little difficult. At the initial stage, I didn’t have enough information on farming but since I met Fairtrade, I’ve had series of trainings which has helped me. One of the major challenges, we had were access to affordable agrochemicals. But Fairtrade has come to our rescue by providing us some agrochemicals; they’ve really helped us,” he said.

Farmers in many farming communities in rural Ghana are known to be struggling to get access to extension services to enhance their productivity.

For instance, with cocoa farmers, many would have to join certified producer organisations to enjoy services including better agriculture practices in the wake of few extension officers.

International organisations like Fairtrade have therefore taken the responsibility to support cocoa farmers in these areas.

However, it does not contact farmers directly but goes through cooperatives.

Kukuom Farmers Union in the Ahafo Region is one of such certified organisations by Fair Trade since 2013.

 President of Kukuom Farmers Union, Nana Gyamera said, “since we joined Fairtrade in 2012, we’ve had so many benefits. First of all, they’ve trained us in good agricultural practices. We have put in place guidelines to help us keep to it.”

“Before we joined Fairtrade, for example, we used to get two bags, from one acre of cocoa farm but due to the good agricultural practices we have adopted, a farmer is now able to harvest between four to eight bags of cocoa. Due to that, it has increased our production which has enhanced our livelihood.”