- Ato Forson Sees Commercial Agriculture as a Route to Youth Jobs
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has put commercial agriculture at the centre of the government’s response to youth unemployment, arguing that large-scale farming could generate jobs well beyond the farm and help reduce Ghana’s dependence on imported food.
“If there is one sector that can create jobs on a large scale, it is agriculture,” Dr Forson said in an interview on Friday, November 13. “We need to commercialise agriculture, not peasant agriculture.”
The argument is that Ghana’s agricultural potential remains underused because production is fragmented and too small in scale to supply domestic industries consistently. A shift towards commercial farming, the minister said, could create employment across the value chain from cultivation and processing to storage and transport.
That wider jobs proposition is the most consequential part of the case. Farming alone may not absorb the number of young people seeking work, but a functioning agricultural economy can support jobs in logistics, equipment maintenance, food processing, packaging and distribution.
The challenge is to build those connections so that increased production generates stable work and income, rather than simply adding output at the farm gate.
Dr Forson said government assessments had identified agriculture as a sector capable of employing a substantial share of the population. He named rice, poultry, palm oil and sugar among the commodities Ghana imports, and argued that local production and processing could create employment while strengthening domestic industries.
“The chain alone, if you are able to fix it, will create so much jobs,” he said.
The phrase “if you are able to fix it” points to the central test. Commercial agriculture requires more than access to land and favourable weather.
Farmers and businesses need reliable routes to markets, storage that prevents post-harvest losses, affordable financing, processing capacity and consistent supplies of inputs.
If any of these links fails, production may rise without producing the broader employment effects the government is seeking.
The minister pointed to the proposed Pwalugu Dam project as an example of how infrastructure could support a more commercial model.
The project is expected to provide irrigation for 25,000 hectares of farmland and support a vegetable-production enclave focused particularly on tomatoes and onions. It is also expected to generate 70 megawatts of electricity for industrial activity in the area.
Dr Forson said the planned enclave could reduce Ghana’s reliance on supplies from Burkina Faso and create opportunities in food processing and preservation. The idea is to connect irrigation and production with businesses that can store, process and sell the harvest.
The project’s potential, however, will depend on execution. Irrigation infrastructure can support production, but employment gains will depend on whether the farms and processing businesses actually develop, whether they can reach buyers and whether the jobs created are accessible to young people.
The announcement describes expected capacity and opportunities; it does not yet establish the number or quality of jobs that will result.
This distinction matters because the language of job creation can obscure differences between seasonal work, informal self-employment and stable paid employment.
A strategy aimed at youth unemployment will need to show not only that agriculture can employ people, but how young workers and entrepreneurs will participate, what skills they will need and whether the work offers a viable livelihood.
Commercialisation also raises questions about who controls production and who captures the value. Larger operations can create jobs and supply processors at scale, but the benefits will depend on how smaller farmers, local enterprises and communities are included.
If investment is concentrated in production while processing, finance and market access remain out of reach for local businesses, the wider employment promise may be limited.
The government’s proposal to move from “peasant agriculture” towards commercial agriculture is therefore a structural choice. It implies a shift in how farming is financed, organised and connected to markets.
For that shift to be inclusive, young people must be able to enter the sector as farmers, workers, service providers and business owners not only as labourers on projects designed and controlled elsewhere.
There is a broader economic case behind Dr Forson’s remarks. When Ghana imports food that could be produced locally, domestic demand supports economic activity outside the country.
Expanding local production could create opportunities for farmers and businesses while reducing reliance on foreign suppliers.
Yet import substitution is not achieved simply by setting a target. Local producers must be able to supply food at the quality, volume and price buyers require throughout the year.
That is why the value chain matters. Tomatoes and onions, for example, are perishable. Without preservation, storage and processing, a glut during harvest can depress prices even as consumers and processors face shortages at other times.
The proposed Pwalugu enclave’s emphasis on food processing and preservation recognises part of that problem. Its success would depend on whether those facilities are built and linked to reliable production and markets.
The same principle applies to rice, poultry, palm oil and sugar. Building domestic production without developing processing and distribution could leave farmers exposed to unstable demand.
Conversely, investment in processing without reliable supplies could leave factories underused. A commercial agriculture strategy must coordinate both sides.
Dr Forson questioned why youth unemployment should remain a major concern when Ghana has arable land, water resources and favourable climatic conditions.
Those assets may create opportunity, but they do not automatically make farming attractive or profitable for young people.
The decisive factors will be access to land and capital, the ability to earn predictable returns, and whether infrastructure and markets reduce the risks of entering the sector.
The minister’s case is therefore strongest when read as a call to build an employment system around agriculture, rather than as a claim that farming by itself will solve youth unemployment.
The proposed Pwalugu project offers a test of whether public infrastructure can anchor production, processing and power generation in one location. The broader test is whether that model can be replicated and connected to private investment and local businesses.
Commercial agriculture can create jobs at scale, but the scale of the promise will be measured in outcomes: businesses established, reliable markets developed, workers trained and livelihoods sustained.
Ghana’s land and water may provide the starting point. Turning them into employment will depend on whether the rest of the chain works.
