According to the acting Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Ussif Mustapha, this was to promote the President Akufo-Addo’s vision of transforming the agricultural sector in the country.

[contextly_sidebar id=”cmrRX828JqNjXXto1J0C0NcKwoOtwIpT”]The Planting for Food and Jobs program is one of the government’s flagship programs aimed at improving agricultural production in the country.

The program government is expected roll out the program in all 216 districts of the country and will involve the supply of farm resources such as high yielding and improved seedlings to participating farmers.

The farmers will also get agrochemicals such as fertilizer at reduced prices.

The government said the program will create some 750,000 jobs and would motivate farmers to grow staple foods such as maize, millet, and beans.

Before the deployed personnel commence work on September 1, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has cast doubt on their ability to do a good job and has said their engagement for extension services as part of the ‘Planting for Food and Job’ program will make the program unsuccessful.

The Programme Officer for the Association, Charles Kwowe Nyaaba, in a Citi News interview said, “The approach of recruiting extension service personnel to help in the programme is wrong. If you go to the Ministry of Agriculture at the district level, you have the extension officers there who are not able to visit farming communities because of lack of logistics. You leave all these people hanging there and you say you are bringing National Service personnel to train them to go and train the farmers. At the end of the day, if you don’t take care, they would rather go and be learning from the farmers and that is not going to give us the impact that we are looking for.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The launch will be held at Goaso in the Asunafo municipality in the Brong Ahafo Region.

[contextly_sidebar id=”o0aU9FbnDrJgZhXIKRbRX3aUQjnlOs7k”]The project is expected to be rolled out in all 216 districts across the country and will involve the supply of farm resources such as high yielding and improved seedlings to participating farmers.

The NPP government has said that it intends to revolutionize agriculture in the country by introducing the programme which is expected to create more than 750,000 jobs.

The programme, according to the government, would also motivate farmers to grow staple foods such as maize, millet, and beans. Interested farmers are to be provided with free seedlings among other agricultural inputs and agro-chemicals such as fertilizer at reduced prices.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto told Citi News, government was very optimistic about the prospects of the program.

He also announced that government intends to construct a warehouse in each district of the country enhance food storage.

“This year, we expect that with these interventions and only the 200,000 farmers, we would be able to increase the demand for jobs on the farms, and create 750,000 jobs. Government has also resolved to build a 1000-metric tonnes capacity warehouse in each of the 216 districts to ensure that we have enough storage capacity to store and market the expected increases that we get from this program,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, has noted that, the program will fail if it is not properly restructured to target more small-scale farmers, instead of large-scale farmers.

The Programme Officer for the Association, Charles Kwowe Nyaaba, in an earlier interview with Citi News said “the target beneficiaries in the first place are wrong. They are targeting the large-scale farmers, and not small-scale farmers, but we all know that the farmer population in Ghana, we have over 80% being small-scale farmers.”

He further said that government’s intention to recruit, train and deploy National Service personnel as extension service officers was a recipe for failure since they may not possess the required skills to undertake the duty.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The post Akufo-Addo to launch Planting for Food and Jobs project today appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He has also encouraged more youth to go into commercial farming as a source of employment to support the country’s development agenda.

Dr. Afriyie Akoto made these known in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation of the ministry, Lambert Abusah, at the inauguration of a 5-member Regional Technical National Committee for the government’s “Planting for Food and Jobs” programme in Sunyani on Tuesday [28^th March, 2017].

According to him, the committee is expected to monitor the implementation of the programme in municipal and district assemblies within the region.

He added that, the committee will facilitate the coordination of project activities; and make recommendations for removal of any obstacle in the project implementation as captured by the action plan.

The Minister disclosed that, the initiative will first focus on Maize, Rice, Soybeans and Sorghum production.

He appealed to the committee to coordinate and monitor the program’s implementation through the provision of improved seeds, supply of fertilizers, provision of dedicated extension services, marketing strategy and the introduction of electronic platform for agricultural transformation in the country.

“This campaign is designed to encourage all citizens both urban and rural, to take up farming as a full time or part time activity. It is intended to be structured along Operation Feed Yourself Programme in the 1970s. The campaign will involve the production of rice, soya beans, sorghum and vegetables”, he emphasised.

He disclosed that the initiative was expected to provide about 750,000 direct and indirect job opportunities for the unemployed youth in the Agriculture sector alone, and therefore urged all Ghanaians to operate farms or backyard gardens.

He noted that, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was determined to redeem its campaign promise of modernizing agriculture, improve food productivity to achieve food security and ensure farmers benefit from their labour.

Dr. Afriyie Akoto said the initiative is estimated to produce about 3,760723 metric tonnes of produce with an estimated value of GH¢1.3 billion, to exceed the 2016 production level of 2,782,44 valued at GH¢700 million”.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister and Chairman of the committee, Kwaku Asomah Cheremeh, thanked the ministry for the confidence reposed in them, and pledged their readiness to serve the country with dedication and professionalism.

He assured that the committee will abide by the terms of reference involved in the implementation of the programme by ensuring that there is value for money in all decisions that would be made.

He appealed to the Ministry to provide experts with the technical know-how of the programme to spearhead the public education aspect of the project to both the committee and farmers to ensure its efficient implementation.

The members of the Committee include the Regional Minister, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh (Chairman), Regional Director- Ministry of Food and Agriculture; Dr. Cyril Quist, a representative of Farmer Based Organization (FBO) , Regional Development Planning Officer, Mr. Duodo A. Acheampong, and the Regional Coordinating Director, Felix B. Chaahaah.

Also in attendance were Municipal and District Coordinating Directors, Municipal and District Directors of Agriculture in the region, and Heads of Department at the Regional Coordinating Council.

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By: Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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