PLANTING FOR FOOD AND JOBS THREATENED

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Sustenance of the government’s flagship programme of Planting for Food and Jobs in the Ashanti region is being threatened by the low recovery rate from participating farmers after the first year of implementation. 

Current statistics from the Regional Directorate of Agric indicate that only 220 thousand Ghana Cedis out of the total of two million Ghana Cedis due for recovery from the beneficiary farmers in the region has been recouped so far. The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei Mensah made this known in Kumasi.


The PF & J
Government introduced the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative during the major farming season of 2017 as its flagship programme in the agricultural sector. 

Two hundred thousand farmers nationwide were targeted to participate in the first year with the figure reviewed upward to 500 thousand this year. In the Ashanti region, out of the projected over 20 thousand, about 12 thousand farmers actually participated in the programme in 2017.

 The participating farmers were involved in the cultivation of mainly the grains and cereals like maize and cowpea. As an incentive, government took up 50 per cent of the cost of production. 

The beneficiary farmers were to make an initial commitment by paying 50 percent of the cost of the subsidized farming inputs such as fertilizer and planting materials. The participating farmers were then obliged to defray the remaining 50 percent of the cost after harvest to enable the government to recoup the amount invested in the programme.

The Fears
However, in the Ashanti region, more than one year after harvest, the beneficiary farmers of the Planting for Food and Jobs are said to have failed to live up to their part of the agreement. 

Out of the two million Ghana Cedis government was expected to recover from the farmers, it had recouped only 220 thousand Ghana Cedis leaving about one point-eight million Ghana Cedis in debt. 

At a meeting with District Directors and other Agric officers from all the 43 administrative districts in the Ashanti region in Kumasi, the Regional Minister, Mr. Osei Mensah, expressed worry about certain challenges that are seriously threatening the sustainability of the programme which he noted, if not immediately addressed, could collapse the initiative within three years after implementation. Among these problems are the failure of the farmers to repay the credit as well as late supply of the production inputs. ‘I don’t think government can find money anytime and pump it into the programme…what we are doing we are killing the programme’, the Regional Minister lamented.
  

Mr. Osei Mensah noted, that most of the major development programmes of the government such as the One District One Factory and One District One Warehouse would fail if the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative is not sustained.

He faulted also the regional directorate of Agric about how they determine the size of total acreage cultivated under the programme and said the formula is faulty an unrealistic. Similarly, some of the projections are not realistic and thus unattainable. 

He therefore entreated the Agric officials to amend how they go about some of those data collection. The Ashanti Regional Director of Agric, Reverend John Manu, explained that Ghanaian’s negative mentality about government’s sponsorship is partly accountable for the low cost recovery under the Planting for Food and Jobs. 

He disclosed that out of the projected ‘80 thousand farmers to participate in the programme this farming season, only 27 thousand have actually registered and participating’ with many others expected to come on board during the upcoming minor season. 

The Chairperson of the Regional Conference of District Directors of Agric, Madam Mary Galley, enumerated some challenges affecting the Planting for Food and Jobs. She said 'the Fall Army Worms that caused so much problems for the programme last year is now under control.'


The Regional Minister took advantage of the meeting to officially hand over brand new double cabin pickups to 30 of the District Directorate which have been in place until the creation of new ones. The vehicles were procured through the 135 million Dollar Canadian government funding for the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana, MAG, initiative. 

He advised the Directors to properly maintain the vehicles towards the attainment of the intended purpose for their procurement.











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