General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh, has revealed that government’s flagship programme, the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), does not exist.
According to him, some of government’s policies have failed to cater to the needs of the agricultural sector. He indicated that the programme has defeated its purpose for existence and hasn’t met the intended target.
Mr Kareweh stated that the Planting for Food and Jobs is supposed to address all the concerns of persons within the agric sector by ensuring that farmers among other things, produce enough for the country as failure to do so implies that it does not exist.
“The Planting for Food and Jobs as we sit now, does not exist in my view. Because whether there is Planting for Food and Jobs now or not, there will still be agricultural production in this country. So, it’s not because of Planting for Food and Jobs that what we are producing today, [is possible]. The Planting for Food and Jobs was to make a difference to what we are already producing… The difference in making sure that we have food is not the case, the difference in making sure that we spend less in importing fertiliser is not there, and the difference in making sure that the general cost of production of our agricultural produce comes down is not there…”
Edward Kareweh
Mr Kareweh indicated that government needs to accept that it has reached its wits end and the programme does not exist. He explained that if government wants to initiate a new phase of Planting for Food and Jobs programme, it can be considered, otherwise, it should not be “having the illusion that Planting for Food and Jobs exists, it does not exists”.
President urged to address challenges within agricultural sector
Commenting on President Akufo-Addo’s address to the nation where he stated that the success in diversifying the structure of the Ghanaian economy from an import-based one to a value-added exporting one will require that government takes some more stringent measures to discourage the importation of goods, Mr Kareweh noted that although it is good news, the union will not respond based on his words, but on action.
He highlighted that at this stage, the President has said so much in the past on how he desires to industrialize and support agriculture and manufacturing in the country by intiating the One District, One Factory and other policies. However, he maintained that such moves does not make it good news until the Union sees real action on the ground.
The GAWU General Secretary stated that the trade policy in relation to agriculture production and manufacturing is not favourable to the sector. He indicated that the Union has consistently advocated against the discounted benchmark value which was restored by the President after its suspension.
Mr Kareweh revealed that the benchmark policy means that imports tariffs on goods are subsidized, thereby harming local production.
“I’m also surprised that how did we wake up to now realize that what we are doing is injurious to agriculture and injurious to manufacturing… Again, the imports that we make, are those that are injuring the agriculture sector. For instance, we have the case of the Labianca, where they import large quantities of poultry products. What we are told is that, they have some exemptions and there were some problems with the exemptions as well. Why will you even give exemptions to a company to import poultry products, when your poultry industry is collapsing? So, all these policies are collapsing the agricultural sector.”
Edward Kareweh
To address the challenges within the sector, Mr Kareweh urged government to rather increase tariffs on all agricultural products that are being imported. He further entreated government to equally raise tariffs on products that are affecting agricultural production.
“… This is the time to come with tangible, targeted action-oriented statements and we can see it happening tomorrow… Anything short of that will not excite we in agriculture, it will not excite Ghanaians because we don’t know how it is going to be implemented and when it will be implemented.”
Edward Kareweh
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