Agriculture Innovations in Africa – Millicent’s Vegetable Factory in Ghana
There has been a long stereotypical mindset towards farming in Africa and it is doing a great dis-service to us as Africans. Although we are much more agrarian in culture, colonisation, acculturation, and the fast-paced globalisation and internationalisation has shifted our attention toward the pursuit of white-collar jobs and ignoring the potentials of agriculture in facilitating the development of the continent. What is worse is how this myth surrounding agriculture has been designated as a means of pubishment in school. This stemmed from the process of instilling discipline in a student, a teacher would say “get a hoe or cutlass, and weed this portion”. That corrective measure has carried a wrong connotation till today. Farming has always been viewed in the wrong light. However, it is the backbone to the survival of every economy, especially African economies.
However, it is noteworthy to have some few game changers setting the records right and straight with regard to exploring the potentials of agriculture in facilitating economic development of African countries and how technological advancements can help the sector. Mavericks like Millicent Addoboe from Ghana have taken up the quest to pursue the best of the agricultural sector in Ghana through innovation and value addition supply chains.
Millicent Addoboe, will have a taste of unemployment as a young female graduate after graduation. Sitting home after a long period with the hope of landing a white collar job (the notion of most young graduates), she resorted to selling of body perfumes and deodorants as a means of survival.
A day without little or no profit was enough reason to venture into agriculture, with her bright entrepreneurial idea. For her, the decision has been a life changing one, which she hoists as an example to encourage more young people to change their rather negative mindsets about agriculture.
“If there’s anything I’ll change about Africa, it will definitely be the mindset of the people towards agriculture.” Madam Millicent Addoboe, Deputy CEO of Achiever Foods Limited. Interestingly, agriculture provides more than 25% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). More than half of the African Workforce is employed by the agriculture industry.
With the rich agricultural resources all across its lands, Africa is capable of feeding itself and feeding the world. Yet, unfortunately, we spend billions of cedis to import food. And people like Millicent are passionate about bringing this to a reality.
In an interview with Wodemaya, she explained that agriculture goes beyond having a cutlass and a hoe, which is a primitive mind set. Rather, it involves a long chain of Food Production, Value Addition, Retail and Marketing, Storage and Waste Management. Agriculture has never been just about Farming. It goes beyond that and her entrepreneurial idea to add value to agricultural products made it visible through Achiever Foods Limited.
Africa’s biggest YouTuber, WodeMaya, toured a turkey berry plantation and factory, where fruits produced are processed here in Ghana and made into finished products such as the Turkey Berry Tea, Juices, Cereal mix powders and Jams
The thought of processing our raw products into finished goods is a step in the right direction and Achiever Foods Limited is pursuing this reality for Ghana and for Africa.
