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Cape Coast – The Chief Executive Officer of Auto Hydro Plant Limited (AHP), Engineer Smaila Abubakar, has proposed that a key strategy to encourage more young people to pursue farming is through the integration of technological innovations to alleviate manual labour in farming practices.
Speaking on GBC Radio Central Morning Show on Friday, December 5, 2025, which was Farmers’ Day – a day honouring farmers and fishers whose work continues to sustain the country’s food security and rural economy, he emphasised that technology-driven farming remains the viable way to revolutionise farming, making it appealing to Ghanaian youth.
In contributing to this idea, Engineer Abubakar revealed that AHP has developed a seed planter, a precision agricultural implement designed to sow seeds efficiently and uniformly across the field. “This device excavates the ground, sows the required seeds, and covers the hole dug. With this, one person can plant large fields with less manual labor,” he emphasized.
Furthermore, he stated that with the aim of making farming more appealing and less labor-intensive, AHP has developed the pioneering Solar Greentech Poultry Cages, which are already operational in Ghana. “These enclosures are more resilient than the Chinese battery cages,” he stressed, highlighting that “they can guarantee an egg-laying rate exceeding 90 percent.”
Prof. Julius Hagan, Animal Scientists of the Animal Science Department, School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast, also a panel member, commended Mr. Abubakar for his innovative endeavours aimed at making farming more accessible and appealing to the youth. He emphasized that the era of farming with hoes and cutlasses is outdated, noting that such farming practices are perceived by the youth as punitive rather than appreciating the commercial aspect of agriculture.
As part of the School of Agriculture’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, and in an effort to promote agriculture among the youth, he announced that an Agriculture Quiz Competition will be organized for select Senior High Schools in the Central Region that offer agriculture studies. “The School of Agriculture will establish model modern gardens for participating schools”, he stated. “We aim to elevate the quiz competition to the standard of the National Science and Maths Quiz”.
According to Prof. Hagan, once the agriculture competition reaches the national dimension as they envision, it would attract more youthful students to pursue agriculture studies. “This is the only way to guarantee the country’s future agriculture prospects,” he noted.
The Animal Scientists capitalized on the opportunity to fervently petition the government to entrust the UCC School of Agriculture with training and supervising SHS, in line with the government’s plan to implement the school agriculture policy. ‘Initiating a government policy is not the challenge; rather, it is ensuring sustainability,’ he emphasized. ‘Let us oversee, at the very least, all schools within the Central Region to guarantee the program’s longevity,’ he stated.
A retired educationist and agriculture enthusiast, Mr. Issah Otoo, also on the panel, emphasized that improved farming methods, enhanced seeds, education on reducing or completely banning chemical usage, especially in home gardening, and inclusion of incentives packages can have positive impacts on youth participation in farming. He commended the UCC School Agriculture initiative, describing it as a game-changer for Ghanaians.
However, he suggested that structuring the agriculture competition to involve basic schools “would be better in catching them young before transitioning into SHS,” he said.
Mr Otoo advocated for healthy cultural and management practices such as weed control, irrigation, or watering instead of herbicides and inappropriate fertilizer application. He further suggested more training in non-traditional farming, such as mushroom, bee, grasscutter, and snail farming.
