As the theme for this year's International Youth Day incites youth action in ensuring food security, there is the need for stakeholders of youth development to create the enabling environment to this effect. This is what the Ashanti Regional Directorate of NYA is doing with the Youth Livelihood Farms project.

Some young people in selected districts undertook various crop production during this year's cropping season.

Likewise, young people in Afigya Kwabre North, one of the participating districts in the project, took the opportunity the project offers to cultivate  maize during the cropping season at Esaase Nkwanta in the District.

After a capacity building by the Regional Directorate on modern methods of farming, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, the youth were offered freely farm inputs including seedlings, weedicide, cutlasses, wellington boots, etc. from the Regional Office.

The youth spent days attending to the farms from clearing of the land, cropping, applications of weedicides and fertilizers. At the beginning of September, the young people, together with a team from the Regional Directorate, harvested a good quantum of corn. The remaining processes in the agricultural value chain will continue until it gets to the final consumer.

This initiative has created employment option for the youth whilst helping to eradicate the negative mindset the youth have about agriculture. It is our fervent hope that the fruitfulness of the farms in the other participating districts will further energise the youth to pursue agriculture and agribusinesses as viable livelihood options.