The Minister of Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, has strongly defended the government’s flagship initiative, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), asserting that the policy has had a remarkable impact on food production and import reduction.
In his view, the policy has significantly contributed to the reduction of rice importation from 950,000 metric tons per annum to about 500,000 metric tons.
Speaking in an interview on The Point of View on Citi TV, Mr. Acheampong disagreed with the argument that the policy has largely been a failure and said production for the major grains consumed in Ghana has seen astronomical increases in yield since the policy’s launch in 2017.
“We were importing 950,000 metric tons of rice per annum and today, it is about 500,000 metric tons of rice and so PFJ has halved the importation of rice. Today, we produce more maize than we consume, and we produce more yam than we consume, indeed, we are the largest exporter of yam in the world. We also produce more plantain than we consume.”
Asked why poultry farmers struggle to get maize to feed their livestock when we produce more maize than we consume, Mr. Acheampong said “We are not producing at the price that the poultry industry requires and that is different and it does not mean that because the poultry farmers are not able to buy the maize at the fixed cost, the policy is a failure.”
“I am saying on authority that we produce more maize in this country than we consume and the fact that the poultry farmers are unable to buy the feed does not mean the programme has failed,” Mr. further stressed.
Planting for Food and Jobs is a flagship agricultural campaign of the Government, with five (5) implementation modules.
The first module PFJ (Crops) aims to promote food security and immediate availability of selected food crops on the market and also provide jobs.
This module was officially launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at Goaso on April 19, 2017, in the then Brong Ahafo Region.
