Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Dr. Frank Ackah, has warned that Ghana’s growing shortage of agricultural extension officers is not only a workforce or employment issue but an emerging food safety concern that could carry wider consequences for public health and national agricultural productivity.
Speaking to The High Street Journal, Dr. Ackah argued that the continued failure to deploy trained agricultural graduates into farming communities is leaving many farmers without the technical guidance needed to maintain safe and sustainable production practices.
According to him, this gap is increasing the risk of unsafe pesticide use, poor agronomic practices and weakened oversight at the farm level, factors that ultimately affect the quality of food reaching consumers.
“Who is ensuring that the farmer is using the right practices? There’s nobody there,” he said, stressing that the absence of trained agricultural officers in many communities is creating dangerous blind spots in Ghana’s food production chain.
Dr. Ackah noted that agricultural extension officers serve as critical frontline advisors who help farmers apply safe crop production techniques, improve yields, manage inputs responsibly and reduce harmful practices that could compromise food safety.
Without that guidance, he warned, farmers may increasingly rely on inconsistent methods, misuse agrochemicals or adopt unsafe water and production systems that could have direct consequences for consumers.
“That is why the abuse of these pesticides and the use of unsafe water is on the increase because there are no extension officers to guide these farmers,” he said.
His comments broaden the national conversation beyond the unemployment concerns of more than 5,000 agricultural graduates, reframing the issue as one that touches food quality, consumer health and Ghana’s wider self-sufficiency ambitions.
For Dr. Ackah, the problem is particularly troubling for a country that continues to prioritise food production and agricultural transformation through flagship initiatives.
He argues that without enough trained officers in the field, Ghana risks undermining those very goals by weakening the bridge between policy and practical implementation on farms.
The lecturer also questioned the logic of leaving trained agricultural graduates unemployed for years while farming communities remain underserved.
In his view, this disconnect creates a dangerous cycle: unemployed graduates, unsupported farmers, weaker productivity and potentially greater public exposure to unsafe food systems.
He is therefore urging the government to prioritise the recruitment and posting of more agricultural officers, arguing that strengthening extension services should be treated not merely as an agricultural employment intervention but as an essential investment in national food security and public health.
