The Agfreeca Podcast

Why are some young Africans choosing to remain in agriculture while others are determined to leave it behind?

In the final part of our conversation with Dr. Edward Martey, we explore the complex relationship between young people and the future of African agriculture.

Drawing on research from Ghana and Ethiopia, Dr. Martey explains that young people cannot be treated as one group. Some want to build their futures in agriculture. Others want to combine farming with off-farm work, while some hope to leave agriculture entirely in search of opportunities elsewhere.

The conversation also examines some of the barriers behind these choices, including access to land, lack of collateral and agricultural credit, high start-up costs, rural opportunities, aspirations, and perceptions of life in the city.

Rather than simply asking, “Why don’t young people want to farm?”, this episode asks a deeper question: What would need to change for agriculture to become a viable and desirable future for Africa’s youth?

Africa Knows. Africa Grows

In Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Edward Martey, we go deeper.

We move from his personal story into the heart of his life's work, over 115 publications spanning agricultural commercialisation, technology adoption, rural development, and welfare outcomes for smallholder farmers across Ghana and Africa.

Dr. Martey unpacks why exporting raw agricultural commodities is not just an economic problem, it is a job problem. Why distance confines rural farmers to low value crops. And why farm to market roads are not just infrastructure, they are the difference between poverty and prosperity for millions of African farmers.

This is the research. This is what it means. And this is what Africa must do differently.

Africa Knows. Africa Grows

What does it take to dedicate a life to African agriculture?

In our first episode, we sit down with Dr. Edward Martey, Principal Research Scientist at the CSIR Savannah Agricultural Research Institute in Northern Ghana, to talk about his journey into agricultural economics and the state of agriculture in Ghana today.

From a young man who wanted to be a doctor to one of Ghana's most respected agricultural researchers, Dr. Martey's story is one of purpose, passion, and a deep commitment to the rural farmer.

We also explore the gap that defines African agriculture's biggest challenge: not the absence of solutions, but the inability to get them from the shelf to the field.

Africa Knows. Africa Grows