80 percent of children not interested in agriculture - Bright Appiah

Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, has disclosed that a lot of children in Ghana have lost interest in agriculture.

According to him, the children's understanding about agriculture is limited to farming and a lot of them see farmers be unattractive.

Speaking in an interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Bright Appiah disclosed a survey by the Child Rights International proves that about 80 percent of children are not interested in venturing into agriculture.

"We let the children define what agriculture is but we realized that the kind of definition that we give to agriculture even within our educational system is limited to farming. So, the children have built their concept of agriculture around farming. So, about 80 percent of the children say they're not interested in going into agriculture; the reason being that when they were young or when the child commits wrongdoing, he or she is told to weed . . . and this has built some kind of mindset in the children's head which is not helpful," he expressed worry, adding "a lot of the children also think that if you're a farmer, it's not attractive''.

He, therefore, called for a broader discussion on the relevance of agriculture saying most of the nation builders are those who are into agriculture.

"We feel that, moving forward, the government's intervention in the agricultural sector; we have to be very open and have a broader discussion in that area so that we can expose other agricultural opportunities to our children within the supply chain so that their mindset will not only be on the fact that agriculture is only farming," he stressed.