Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Youth Employment in Ghana

The report examines the nexus between youth employment and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technology in Ghana. It finds a significant disconnect between national policy frameworks and the operational realities of youth-led startups, which face severe constraints in financing, regulatory compliance, and market adoption. While Indigenous knowledge is heavily integrated into product design, it lacks formal policy support and documentation. The study recommends streamlining business registration, operationalizing the National Green Jobs Strategy, and creating targeted financial and gender-inclusive support systems to scale CSA tech as a viable employment pathway for Ghanaian youth.

• There is a profound disconnect between Ghana's policy frameworks and the experiences of CSA tech startups, with many entrepreneurs reporting low awareness of relevant policies and a lack of participation in policymaking processes.
• The National Green Jobs Strategy is identified as the most comprehensive framework for linking CSA tech to youth employment, but it is ineffective due to low awareness among startups, accelerators, and key government ministries, and its tax benefits remain unoperationalised.
• Access to capital is the primary constraint for growth; startups rely heavily on uncertain private grants and avoid debt financing due to high interest rates and collateral requirements, while state support is marginal.
• Regulatory hurdles, specifically burdensome business registration and costly, complex intellectual property protection, hinder the formalization and scaling of youth-led CSA ventures.
• Market adoption is unstable because smallholder farmers often show interest in pilots but lack the willingness or capacity to pay for technologies, which are often more expensive than conventional alternatives.
• Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is deeply embedded in CSA tech products—with an average of 69% local content in the sampled startups—yet it is largely undocumented and excluded from the National Green Jobs Strategy.
• Women's participation in CSA tech entrepreneurship is severely limited, particularly in leadership; the study's sample of ten startups contained no female-led companies.
• Startups suffer from high employee attrition, where trained youth staff frequently leave within a year for better-paying roles, creating a cycle of lost investment in training.

APA

Nortey, B. O., & Prempeh, S. (2026). Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Youth Employment in Ghana. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/climate-smart-agriculture-technologies-and-youth-employment-in-ghana

Chicago

Nortey, Bismark Owusu, and Serwah Prempeh. Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Youth Employment in Ghana. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2026. https://afripoli.org/climate-smart-agriculture-technologies-and-youth-employment-in-ghana.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nortey |first1=Bismark Owusu |last2=Prempeh |first2=Serwah |title=Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Youth Employment in Ghana |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=5 March 2026 |url=https://afripoli.org/climate-smart-agriculture-technologies-and-youth-employment-in-ghana |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nortey2026climate, author = {Nortey, Bismark Owusu and Prempeh, Serwah}, title = {{Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Youth Employment in Ghana}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://afripoli.org/climate-smart-agriculture-technologies-and-youth-employment-in-ghana}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }