Takoradi, March 11, GNA – Mr Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, the Executive Director, Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC), says it has created an avenue to generate the interest of young women in the agriculture sector.

He said KIC in collaboration with partners would increase women’s participation in the AgriTech challenge to achieve a 50 per cent young women inclusion target.

Mr Gyan-Kesse said the programme would provide capacity building and practical skills training for students and graduates, invest in changing the mindset and perceptions of the young people and position agri-entrepreneurship as an exciting career choice for women.

It would also develop the interest and train over 20,000 young women in the next four years and offer them alternative pathways to either run a viable business or get placed in a dignified job.

He said the young women needed to identify female role models, who excelled in agriculture, adding the annual Women in Agriculture Summit would aim at showcasing past female KIC alumni to serve as role models and mentors to potential applicants.

He said KIC would engage the government, private sector and women entrepreneurs to identify and address the challenges faced by women in agriculture at different levels while creating a platform to share stories on the discrimination that women faced and the cultural perceptions that existed and fostered inequality.

Mr Gyan-Kesse said as an organisation dedicated to empowering young people to take on entrepreneurship across the agriculture value chain, they were faced with a glaring gender imbalance that was impossible to ignore.

He said in all the six years that the Center had nurtured entrepreneurs in AgriTech, provided funding for their business and supported them to scale up and expand, they had recorded less than 40 per cent of female participation.

“We have researched the low participation of women in KIC programmes and discovered a mix of cultural, sociological, economic, and systemic factors. More importantly, we have discovered that this is reflective of women’s participation in the agriculture and technology industries,” he stated.

He mentioned that many women in agriculture experienced widespread gender discrimination, including conscious and unconscious bias and cultural norms that posed obstacles to their ability to fully participate in agriculture as women in Ghana were unable to rent tractors to plough their fields.

GNA

Takoradi, March 11, GNA – Mr Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, the Executive Director, Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC), says it has created an avenue to generate the interest of young women in the agriculture sector.

He said KIC in collaboration with partners would increase women’s participation in the AgriTech challenge to achieve a 50 per cent young women inclusion target.

Mr Gyan-Kesse said the programme would provide capacity building and practical skills training for students and graduates, invest in changing the mindset and perceptions of the young people and position agri-entrepreneurship as an exciting career choice for women.

It would also develop the interest and train over 20,000 young women in the next four years and offer them alternative pathways to either run a viable business or get placed in a dignified job.

He said the young women needed to identify female role models, who excelled in agriculture, adding the annual Women in Agriculture Summit would aim at showcasing past female KIC alumni to serve as role models and mentors to potential applicants.

He said KIC would engage the government, private sector and women entrepreneurs to identify and address the challenges faced by women in agriculture at different levels while creating a platform to share stories on the discrimination that women faced and the cultural perceptions that existed and fostered inequality.

Mr Gyan-Kesse said as an organisation dedicated to empowering young people to take on entrepreneurship across the agriculture value chain, they were faced with a glaring gender imbalance that was impossible to ignore.

He said in all the six years that the Center had nurtured entrepreneurs in AgriTech, provided funding for their business and supported them to scale up and expand, they had recorded less than 40 per cent of female participation.

“We have researched the low participation of women in KIC programmes and discovered a mix of cultural, sociological, economic, and systemic factors. More importantly, we have discovered that this is reflective of women’s participation in the agriculture and technology industries,” he stated.

He mentioned that many women in agriculture experienced widespread gender discrimination, including conscious and unconscious bias and cultural norms that posed obstacles to their ability to fully participate in agriculture as women in Ghana were unable to rent tractors to plough their fields.

GNA