By Bertha Badu-Agyei
Accra, March 27, GNA – The Embassy of Israel in Ghana through MASHAV, has engaged female students in agriculture at the University of Ghana to encourage women’s participation in the agriculture sector.
The event dubbed “Women in Agriculture Seminar” hosted Mr Roey Gilad, Israeli ambassador to Ghana and his wife and women blazing the trail in the agriculture sector as part of activities to mark the 2025 International Women’s Day (IWD).
Mr Gilad observed that agriculture remained the backbone of the Ghanaian economy just like Israel and therefore women’s participation in the sector was critical to ensure that food security was achieved.
Professor Eric Nartey, Dean, School of Agriculture said the University in collaboration with other stakeholders were working on using technology and innovations to solve some of the challenges in the sector mentioning rice farming.
We are also improving on the practical component of training in the school to enhance the duration of field work and practicals for the students especially to give the female students more exposure on the career opportunities in the sector.
He appealed to the Israeli Ambassador to restore the one-year exchange programme for students of agriculture to Israel to which had stalled since the covid-19 era and hoped that it would boost the interest of women pursuing studies in that sector.
Mrs Tammy Erann-SOL, an Israeli, Mrs Martha Adjorlolo and Ms Eugenia Osei all female agriculturist who shared their experiences and agriculture journey with the students extolled the opportunities in the agriculture sector and urged female students to pursue it.
Mrs Martha Adjorlolo, Farm Manager at the Livestock Poultry Research Centre (LIPREC), University of Ghana told the participants that career opportunities in agriculture were vast and attractive and therefore urged the female students to ignore the stereotypes and take the studies seriously.
She said every subject including physics and chemistry were very important and connected adding “until you finish school and working you will not appreciate these subjects when doing agriculture, but it’s very critical to every sector in agriculture”.
Ms Eugenia Osei, an agriculturist and CEO of Cosmofarm Consult said even though she grew up in a farming community, it was not a precondition in pursuing agriculture studies but hard work and commitment.
GNA
KOA