Youth Empowerment for Life advocate for yam market in northern region

Youth Empowerment for Life advocate for yam market in northern region


Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) a non-governmental organisation (NGO) has advocated for the establishment of a common yam market in the eastern corridor of the Northern Region to ensure fair prices and a stable market for yam producers.
Youth Empowerment for Life a community based NGO under the auspices of the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), said the eastern corridor of the region is the largest producer of yam in the country, but the farmers do not get fair prices for their produce as the commodity is perishable and the farmers had to travel long distances to the south to sell their produce at the mercy of market queens, who buy the produce at ridiculous prices.
The Programme Officer of YEfL, Jawol Vera Magan said this at a media orientation workshop organized by the GDCA and the Empowerment for Life (E4L) Programme in Tamale yesterday.
The orientation workshop sought to foster strong collaboration and partnership with the media to enable the GDCA under whose umbrella the YEfL operates to carry out its advocacy and empowerment programme more effectively.
She said the establishment of a common yam market will also help mobilize the farmers to form a popular association and help create employment for the youth of the area.
She said other areas of concern the YEfL will be focusing on include, advocating for a national youth employment programme and a national youth policy.
Vera said that although the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) was laudable, its politicization was not allowing it achieve its objective, and called for the de-politicization of the programme in the recruitment process and award of contracts.

On the Youth in Agriculture Programme (YiAP), Madam Magan said information gathered from the field indicated that the programme was not reaching its target areas, and expressed the hope that more efforts would be made to get the youth, especially those from the north, to benefit from the programme.
The Programme Officer of YEfL expressed worry over the delay in having a national youth policy for the country, saying that, a policy guide for all the youth groups, associations, organizations and government youth institutions, would be useful in organizing the youth to undertake meaningful ventures for the development of the country.
The Programme Advocacy and Communication Officer of EfL, Rosemond Kumah in her welcome address said GDCA and YEfL in cooperation with its Danish partners have been implementing the Empowerment for Life (EfL) programme in 14 districts in the region.
According to her, the objective of the programme is to empower poor, vulnerable and marginalized targets groups to have the capacity and ability to improve their quality of life through education, employment, local organizations as well as better access to and management of food and water resources on the basis of rights-based approach.