The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo has indicated that there’s a need to review the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Program.
According to him, there is the need to evaluate the various modules under the program but not necessarily changing the entire policy.
“If you want to have a change of the current policy, then we need to review the Planting for Food and Jobs Program and its modules. We have the Food Crop module, Tree Crop module, the Agric-Mechanization module and the Greenhouse module. The appraisal of these modules, we can talk about them. But, as to any drastic change, I don’t think we need to go into any. What we need to do, maybe in the course of implementation of these modules, we can do to make it better.”
Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo
Speaking on the need for a review of the PFJ Program, Hon. Yaw Frimpong announced that he had discussed the issue with the Minister of Food and Agriculture.
“It’s at the conception stage now. We are looking at how to organize such an event.”
Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo
The Deputy Minister further mentioned the need for stakeholder engagement to ascertain the problems associated with the PFJ program.
In assessing the progress of the PFJ policy, Hon. Frimpong stated that what a person may identify as a setback, to another person, it’s a success. According to him, a consultation with stakeholders will enable the ministry to find out key indicators of dominant setbacks.
Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo revealed that planning for Farmers Day is the only drawback but he’s confident stakeholder engagement is more likely to happen before the year ends.
Hike in food prices
The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture explained that the recent hike in food prices were as a result of shortage of food supply.
Hon. Frimpong Addo indicated that neighboring countries had come to purchase a lot of food from Ghana and before the Ministry realized, what was left was inadequate.
“We should not overlook the fact that 2020 was a challenging year for the whole world.”
Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo
Based on recent weather reports, the Honorable Minister for Food and Agriculture specified that the inconsistencies in weather conditions has been one of the main contributors of shortage in agricultural products.
However, the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture believes that by the end of December, food prices will gradually reduce.
Impact of COVID on Agriculture
Hon. Frimpong Addo likened the shock that hit the agriculture sector and the general economy to “a baby born looking so good then suddenly measles comes to attack the baby. The baby before the measles was walking and getting ready to run. Then, the measles came, slows the baby down but that does not mean the baby will not walk and run”.
Unlike the middle and southern belt, the northern belt experiences only one planting season. Aside, the Deputy Minister noted that farmers up north are currently planting.
Also, he stated that if rainfall had not been substantial in the northern part of Ghana, the food situation would have been worse than it is now.
When questioned on the success of the PFJ Program, the Deputy Minister said he’s confident about the progress of work so far.
He also revealed that officers have been appointed to develop seedlings that will facilitate mass cultivation of 5 crops namely: Cashew, Mango, Shear, Oil palm and Coconut.
However, he advised the public not to stand on these recent hiccups alone to either suggest or conclude that there is a policy failure.
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