Agribusiness entrepreneur, Richard Addison is urging more young people to venture into agriculture, which he says holds great potential for Africa’s contribution to global food security.
According to him, while there are huge prospects with great chances of making profits in agriculture, it will take hard work and commitment for that to occur.
Mr. Addision, who runs Kent Farms, with about 85 acres of farmland mainly growing rice in the Shama District of the Western Region and commencing a corn farm in the Central Region said Africa has the potential of feeding the world if its youth consciously and aggressively venture into commercial agriculture.
“I think that as a people, we should have a farming revolution. It is very profitable, but as young people what we need to understand is that, nothing comes easy… I am [constantly] reading on agriculture, how to plant rice and so on. We have Google and Youtube and all these things at our disposal so we can actually be very good farmers and make quite a lot of money. If we can grow rice and corn, to feed ourselves, then we can even export to feed the rest of the world,” he said.
Through his Kent Farms and Investment initiative, he has rolled out an initiative that will make it easy for young people to enter agriculture by owning farmlands and getting it managed for them.
“I’m trying to get my friends involved [in this initiative], whatever land I get to farm on, I let them invest in maybe one acre or two acres, they pay for it and I look after it. We get the workers to do [manage] it. With the young people, I encourage them to take one acre and after harvest when they make some profit, they get interested and continue,” he noted.
With about 60 locals employed, Mr. Addison said he is hoping to expand the business and push for a ‘districts in agriculture’ programme that will “help districts who rely heavily on Common Fund, to raise internal revenue by giving youth easy access to lands, equipment and expertise to farm and make profits, as they help meet local and national demands for food.”