The Impact.
We are looking at the impact of some aspects of education in the development of Ghana.
Starting with Agricultural Education and it's impact on the development of Ghana. Ghana has been blessed with various agro-economical vegetation zones that support agriculture in our country. Of which these vegetation zones include: Sudan Savannah, Guinea Savannah, Coastal Savannah, Forest/Savannah transitional zone, Deciduous Forest zone and the Rain Forest zone. In each zone has special crop(s) that grow well in the zone. We have several tertiary institutions in our country that admit students to read diverse agricultural programs to work under the agriculture sector of Ghana. These students after being admitted are introduced to different agricultural methods ranging from crop seedlings sowing to harvest of crops and, rearing of farm animals and what have you. The problem is what has been the impact of these students knowledge on the agriculture sector of Ghana. If you take The Agriculture university at Mampong into consideration, Mampong and its environs are farming communities both crops and animal farming. You ask yourself, are these communities benefitting from the agriculture students in the university? As part of the practical session of the agriculture education, students are supposed to be visiting farms that are close to the university and even sometimes move far away on field trips and others, again you ask are they given the chance to do that? from level 100 to level 400, these students barely go out of campus to have a pragmatic feel of what they have been taught, so at the end of the four year agriculture education, the highest field work and trips by these students won't be more than three which is very very bad. So you go to Mampong and it environment, basic food commodities are scarce at a higher price, a community that has an Agricultural university. Isn't it a shame? Students after the four year agricultural education can't drive the tractor, can't use heavy farm equipments in the farm because they weren't exposed to the pragmatic use of these instruments. So an agricultural officer can't even determine the pH of a particular land to know the type of crops to be planted on that particular land. So you will find the agriculture officer himself planting cocoa in a water logged land. We have Ejura Agriculture college, kwadaso agricultural college etc, yet we normally import common tomatoes and onion from Burkina Faso. The agric officer after school wants to be in an office, funny. Cocoa pollination, artificial insemination, is carried out by people who have less knowledge in agriculture, the officer who has learnt in school thinks it's not his job to be doing that. Rice plantations currently are not yielding fruits compared to previous years. Farmers are not given the necessary education and resources from the various districts and regional agriculture directorate, so these farmers haphazardly sow their crops without proper cultural practices such as pruning, thinning in and out, fertiliser applications, etc even with transplanting of seedlings most farmers lack education as to when they're to transplant their seedlings. Agriculture offices are mostly found in the cities while the grassroots farmers are in the villages. So people that are expected to benefit from agriculture education because there are no agriculture colleges closer to them farm with their own non-formal education. Government must set up agricultural colleges and furnish them with the appropriate instruments in rural areas to support our fathers who are into farming. Imagine an agricultural college at Wassa and Agriculture college at KNUST, which one benefits the agricultural sector. Let's consider the agriculture sector for it's the backbone of the country's development.
ASUMAN-ADU EBENEZER
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