Member profile
Mr. Alfred Adjabeng
Organization:
Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement
Country:
Ghana
Field(s) of expertise:
I am working on:
I am the founder of School Farms. School Farms, empowers local community schools to be food secured by helping them grow their own food, through community-driven farms whilst using the same space to gain skills in agriculture through our Agriculture Skills Development Program for Rural Young People (ASDPYP)
Mr. Alfred Adjabeng
Most of the times, I hear people say 'make agriculture sexy'. After working with rural young people, mostly rural young farmers, I have realised that in order to encourage more young people into agriculture we need to introduce them to sustainable agriculture tools, smart technologies, connect their farms to urban market.
Modern agriculture sustainable technology makes agriculture sexy!
Mr. Alfred Adjabeng
I am Alfred Godwin Adjabeng, founder and executive director of Reach Out to Future Leaders Movement, a youth-led non-profit start-up in Ho, Ghana, West Africa.
Our organization’s flagship project School Farms, empowers local community schools to be food secured by helping them grow their own food, through community-driven farms whilst using the same space to gain skills in agriculture through our Agriculture Skills Development Program for Rural Young People (ASDPYP). Since 2014, we have piloted our project in the Northern, Upper West and Volta regions of Ghana, in four (4) schools and have served close to 20000 students.
Rural schools in Ghana are increasingly faced with the challenge of funding school meals due to limited government support, the rise in food cost and market failures. This challenge is affecting school attendance, retention and active teaching and learning activities in schools.
Also, despite the huge arable land in rural areas coupled with the opportunities that the agriculture sector presents in these areas, rural young people continue to migrate to urban areas in pursuit of ‘unexisting’ jobs. Rural young people are the future of food security, yet around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas.
School Farms program recognize the link between education, nutrition and skill development and we are improving access to all. School Farms is a rural community-based school feeding support program that empowers local community schools to grow their own food whilst creating a space to help students gain practical skills and explore opportunities in Agriculture.
Our Agriculture Skills Development Program for Rural Young People empowers rural young people for local agriculture development through our AgroMentoring, Best Student Farmers and Agriculture Skills Development Handbook initiatives. We are mainstreaming rural young people in agriculture. According to Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the average age of a farmer in Ghana is 55. This is a threat to the future of food security.
In our fours years of working with rural young people, we have recognised that until we empower rural young people to add value to agriculture produce, connect them to the urban market, help them adopt sustainable agriculture technologies and increase access to capital, we may be underestimating their potential of promoting local agriculture development. Our school farms program is empowering more rural young people to desire for themselves a career in agriculture.