8 months ago
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Registration for Farmers and Schools participating in the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Phase II starts today across the country.
The Phase II builds on the successes of the initial PFJ campaign which is aimed to promote agricultural development, food security, increased productivity and job creation.
• Dr Bryan Acheampong (behind microphone) adressing the news
conference yesterday Photo: Godwin Ofosu-Acheampong
Similarly, it also addresses challenges and harness the potential of the food and agricultural sector.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Bryan Acheampong, at a press conference in Accra yesterday to kick-start the programme, stated that it took a holistic view of the value chain approach by strengthening linkages among others along selected agricultural commodity value chains, and improving service delivery to maximise impact.
“A significant difference between PFJ II and the initial programme is the substitution of direct input subsidy with a smart agricultural financial support system in the form of a zero-interest input credit, where payment will be in kind,” he stated.
He also said the programme was anchored on five main strategic element mainly: input credit system, storage and distribution infrastructure, off-take arrangement or commodity trading, digitised platform and line of sight management, and coordination.
The minister further explained that the programme, with a five-year plan, will shift from small scale farming to relatively large-scale farming in order to change the landscape of agriculture in Ghana and achieve its target of food security.
This new model, he said, was an alternative way of supporting farmers, and contrast with the original PFJ system where previously the government subsidised seeds and fertilizers for all registered farmers across the 16 administrative regions, and made payments to input distributors.
“I would like to emphasise that the PFJ II programme is a carefully thought-through initiative designed to build on the successes of the initial programme, while addressing its limitations,” he said, also adding that “the ministry is committed to ensuring the successful implementation of this transformative approach to empower farmers.”
The focus of the new model, according to the Minister of Agriculture, was to achieve a “more sustainable method of financing fertilizer and seeds for farmers” instead of the annual subsidy placed on inputs, which had become very expensive to maintain.
“An input credit system will be introduced to replace the input subsidy under the original PFJ, so instead of subsidies on fertilizer, seeds and other inputs, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, with the implementation of the PFJ II introduce a value chain approach, where aggregators will acquire inputs from government and distribute them to identified farmers,” he noted.
Dr Acheampong revealed that the PFJ II would leverage information technology to avoid the key pitfall of the PFJ, the lack of accountability in order to achieve desired efficiency. Aggregators would also be relied upon to provide needed linkage to the enrolled crop farmers, adding that the harvests would subsequently be purchased by the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) to cater for government interventions such as the School Feeding Programme.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
