The president of Ghana, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has announced that the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme would enrol 1.2 million additional farmers in its first year.
According to him, the second phase of the PFJ programme will impact greatly on the sector of job creation with expectations to record an annual average of 210,000 new farm related jobs in its second to fifth year.
“The impact of the Programme is expected to be in the area of job creation, with some one-point-two million (1.2 million) farmers to be enrolled in the first year. In the next four (4) years, the Programme is destined to record an annual average of two hundred and ten thousand (210,000) new farm-related jobs. This will exclude other jobs along the agricultural value chains estimated at an annual average of four hundred and twenty thousand over the same period,” He said.
This, he said will exclude other jobs along the agricultural value chain estimating an annual average of 430,000 over the same period.
The president made these statements at the launch of the Planting for Food and Jobs Phase 2 at the University for Development Studies in Tamale.
The second phase of the programme is a five-year plan that will be concentrated on relatively large-scale farming to change the landscape of agriculture in country to achieve its target of food security.
The first phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme which was launched by H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at Goaso on April 19, 2017 in the then Brong Ahafo Region concentrated on five modules, this; Food Crops (PFJ), Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), Greenhouse Technology Villages (3 Villages), Rearing for Food and Jobs ( RFJ), and Agricultural Mechanization Services (AMSECs).
After 6 years of the first phase of the PFJ, the president explains that, there has been major impacts with involvement of over 2.7 million farmers and other value chain actors under the five modules.
it has thus led to a relatively stable food security environment, increased agricultural sector growth rate from 2.7 percent in 2016 to an average of 6.3 percent from 2017 to 2022, increased fertilizer application rate among others.
President Akufo-Addo stated that the second phase will place greater emphasis on value chain strategies by cementing linkages between value chain actors in some eleven agricultural commodity value chains, grouped into grains, roots and tuber, vegetables and poultry.
He disclosed further that, the second phase of the Programme will improve service delivery to boost its impact.
President Akufo Addo emphasized that PFJ 2 will enhance incomes and create wealth adding that it is the fundamental objective of the programme to enhance import substitution.
“ Critically, it is designed to promote import substitution given its targets as a major turn-around structure” He said.
Speaking at the launch, the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Kwasi Boateng Agyei urged MMDCEs and Traditional rulers to take major interests in the agricultural sector of the country.
Source: Fiilafmonline/ShawanaYussif
