The KIC and Mastercard Foundation 2023 AgriTech Challenge Classic Finals, held from December 18th to 19th, 2023, in Accra, graduated 50 teams in its pitch competition focused on boosting agribusiness.
The program comprised training workshops, market research tours, entrepreneurship coaching, and mentoring by faculty advisors and technical teams.
The Executive Director of KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, emphasized their commitment to providing a transformative journey for young individuals and creating job opportunities in the agricultural sector through entrepreneurship.
He highlighted the importance of technology and agribusiness in Africa’s future prosperity and how their collaborative program aims to shift mindsets and offer practical training and resources for entrepreneurial development.
During the event, Associate Professor of Agribusiness Management, Prof. James Osei Mensah, stressed the need for policy implementation to attract the interest of the younger generation in agriculture.
He expressed concerns that the country might lose its agricultural standing if the focus remains primarily on aging farmers.
Ottfried Odamtten-Sowah, Program Lead for Agribusiness at Mastercard Foundation, reiterated the foundation’s commitment to empowering young people with dignified job opportunities within the agribusiness sector through partnerships like the AgriTech Challenge Classic program with KIC.”
Insufficient access to financial support, arable lands, and knowledge presents a significant challenge to agricultural productivity in Ghana.
Despite being the future of food security, many young people in the country do not envision a place for themselves in agriculture as they encounter numerous obstacles in pursuing a livelihood in this field, including high competition for arable land and a lack of access to credit and essential resources required for farming.
Additionally, most of the nation’s food comes from aging smallholder farmers who are less inclined to adopt newer, sustainable agricultural technologies.
