The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has embarked on a process to recruit 1,000 agriculture extension officers by end of March to augment the woefully inadequate officers in the system to support the government’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ agenda.
They are being recruited through the Youth in Agriculture Module under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and will be seconded to MoFA.
However, as and when clearance is received from the Ministry of Finance, the officers would be migrated onto the payroll of the various district assemblies as employees of the Local Government Service.
Allowances for the extension officers have been budgeted for in the 2017 budget.
However, cost of logistics such as motorbikes, fuel, protective clothing and basic logistics, would be taken care of from a Canadian grant facility secured by the government for the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ agenda project.
Extension officers offer critical services
Extension officers guide farmers to apply good agricultural practices in their production activities so as to make them efficient in the use of inputs for increased productivity to enhance farmer income.
Only 2,600 Extension Officers on the job
Ghana requires at least 4,000 Agric Extension Service Officers to some meaningful work but only 2,600 are in employment currently.
70% of Extension Officers to retire in 4 years
Information indicates that more than half of the 2,600 Service Officers are due for retirement in the next four years.
5,000 Extension Officers jobless
It is estimated that there are about 5,000 extension officers who have graduated from the five Colleges of Agriculture but are unemployed because of pressure on the public sector payroll.
Few commercial farms
Also, they could not secure jobs in the private sector as commercial farms are very few in Ghana.
5 Colleges of Agriculture
The Colleges of Agriculture in Ghana are: Ohawu and Adidome in the Volta Region, Ejura and Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region and Damongo in the Northern Region.
The Director of Extension Services at MoFA, Dr Kwame Ameza, told The Finder that the Ministry could not secure financial clearance to recruit extension officers in the past two years widening the deficit.
Gaps identified in each district
He explained that needs assessment to establish the needs of each of the 216 districts have been completed and the new recruits would be deployed based on the gaps identified in each district.
Dr Ameza stated that extension officers now work as employees of assemblies and MoFA provides technical backing and policy direction.
Mode of recruitment
According to him, graduates from the colleges of agriculture, who desire to participate in the recruitment, should send their applications to their preferred district assemblies to be registered and same forwarded to the Director of Human Resource at MoFA in Accra.
Similarly, he added that they can also send their names and applications to the College of Agriculture that they attended for onward submission to the Director of Human Resource at MoFA.
Employment interview
He explained that in case more than 1,000 graduates apply, officials of YEA, MoFA and Local Government Service would constitute a panel to interview the applicants.
Dr Ameza said successful applicants would be recruited under YEA and posted to the various districts nationwide.
Source: The Finder
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the employment have been done. for good 6months now, no allowance for the people who were employed.
i want to find out how to register. There is no such module "AGRICULTURE" ACTIVATED AT THE WEBSITE
Please the mode of recruitment is not clear, to me. So if only you can add online registration too, it will be better To ask at last. Is it purposely for those who attended Agric College or anyone who studied Agriculture either in the university, college or have more knowledge on Agriculture extension work can apply??
Akufo-Addo must ensure that Bunso Arboretum and Aburi Botanical Gardens are given the needed facelift. Bunso Arboretum was closed down after the canopy walkway collapsed. Apart from scientific research these bring in foreign currency through tourism.
I am a farmer and can confirm that this is a good move by the government. We look forward to working with them as we work towards the Government's program "Planting for food and jobs.
Great News, being long overdue. Glad Nana Addo and the NPP govt has awaken this vision. I pray we renovate, expand and build new silos to accommodate the food boom and also create the enabling environment for sale and export of the surplus. The one district one factory can also see the light of day with the boom in agriculture. Once again, well done. NDC bye bye oooooooooooo. Awifoo and nation wreckers party.
This is what Ghanaians real want. A step in the right direction. This is long overdue. I remember growing up in the village, there was always an Agric Extention to aid of my father(farmer). Kudos to the Minister and the initiators of this laudable idea.
Good points, Kojo. To add to yours, it should not be business as usual and these Extension Officers should be allocated to a number of farmers and it could be say 50 farmers per one extension officer and their visits should also be signed by the farmers. Extension Officers should be given bonus-based pay in addition to their fixed salary. Farmers output should be one of the indicators for the bonus. Delighted that Akuffo-Addo's government is not signing bus painting contracts.
good initiative so long as we do our profitability analysis well. not even IMF CAN STOP us
Recruiting of extension officers is in order.But we need serious minded and hard working officers to take up the task . We need proper monitoring of officers in their operations.We should weed out the lazy ones and replace them with hard working ones. We need to revolutionize the growth of tuber crops ,cereals,legumes etc. in the country hence the need for more extension officers. Thank you.