The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong, has said that the phase two of the government’s flagship programme of Planting for Food and Jobs, has been designed as a bold, innovative and comprehensive approach to tackle head-on the hurdles on our food security journey.
According to him, the underpinning model, which is the Input Credit System, will solve a number of critical challenges namely: Access to credit; Quality of agro inputs; Unstructured markets of agricultural produce; and Low mechanisation, among others.
“Indeed when we roll out the Programme in full, one will no longer need to mobilise upfront financing for land development and preparation as well as seeds and fertilizers, which together constitute about 80% of production cost. I make bold to predict that with time the new slogan for agriculture would be: PFJ 2.0, n33 ohiaa ne asaase – to wit all you need is access to land and all other things shall be added.”
The Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Abetifi Constituency in his remarks during the launch of the phase II programme in Tamale on Monday (August 28, 2023) revealed that a Ghanaian farmer requires at least GHS40,000 for the development of one hectare of land and the farmer will also have to spend a minimum amount of GHS5,975 per hectare on agro inputs and an additional amount of GHS3,375 on other on-farm activities including labour.
He added that for a new farmer intending to crop 5 hectares, that will mean raising an amount of GHS246, 750 upfront, stressing this no doubt will be out of reach for many people desiring to go into commercial farming, notwithstanding the proven financial benefits of a net profit of GHS32,807 per cycle.
“Mr. President under PFJ 2.0, one does not need to raise this GHS246, 750 upfront, as this will be facilitated under the programme through the inputs credit arrangement. As I mentioned earlier, n33 ohiaa ne asaase. Post-production, the PFJ 2.0 has structured market linkages to ensure that produce cropped have a ready guaranteed market from credible offtakers” he reiterated.
The Food and Agricultural Minister hinted that the Ministry intends to tackle the problem of access to large tracts of agriculture land, through the establishment of Agriculture Zones to drive sustainable and commercially-oriented agriculture, with emphasis on climate-smart agriculture across the country.
Dr Bryan Acheampong has however noted the success of policy will hinge largely on the availability of land and therefore underscored the important role traditional leaders have to play in the implementation process.
The PF&J phase II programme is a five-year plan designed to attain food and raw material self-sufficiency with particular attention on the following crops and poultry: Vegatables – tomato, onion and pepper, Grains – rice, maize, soya and sorghum; Plaintain, Roots and Tubers – cassava, and yam and with poultry the emphasis will be on Broiler production and processing.
These commodities were selected based on their significance in the diet of Ghanaians, contribution to Food and Nutrition Security, contribution to foreign exchange earnings as well as their contribution to import Substitution.
The sector Minister indicated clearly that the focus on these selected commodities does not however mean that other equally important crops and livestock would be abandoned by the Ministry.
