MOFA did not provide any inputs for farmers in 2023 under PFJ 2.0

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) says the Ministry of Food and Agriculture did not facilitate or distribute any inputs for farmers in 2023 under the Planting for Food and Jobs Phase Two Programme.

This is contrary to provisions in the 2024 budget that the Ministry facilitated the procurement and distribution of inputs for farmers under the program.

The association further added that per the design of the Programme, the government could not forecast the number of inputs to be supplied since it would be demand-driven and based on the number of farmers that are rolled onto the programme.

Dr Charles Nyaaba, the Executive Director, was speaking at a press briefing held in Accra, on the 2024 National Budget and Implications on the Legislative Instrument (LI) restricting the importation of some agricultural products.

The Planting for Food and Jobs Phase 2.0 was introduced to replace Phase One due to poor implementation and the failure of Phase One to deliver on its mandate.

With the PFJ 2.0 concept, the focus is on the private sector, value chain approach, market-driven, and inclusivity with the government only playing a facilitation role in the project implementation.

He said it was, therefore, shocking to read in the 2024 budget that, since the launch of PFJ 2.0, “the Ministry in 2023, has facilitated the procurement process and distribution of 9,827.5MT of seeds.

These seeds comprised 5,000MT of Maize, 450MT of rice, 300MT of sorghum, 4,071MT of soya, 1.3MT of pepper, 1.2MT of tomato, and 4MT of onions seeds, in addition to 365,165MT of inorganic fertilizers and 7.2 million liters of pesticides to farmers for the minor planting season under the Input Credit Model.

He said that the budget states that “In 2024, the Ministry will facilitate the provision of 34,682MT of seeds: maize (7,500MT), rice (18,803MT), sorghum (350MT), soya (7,965MT), tomato (11MT), pepper (3MT) and onions (50MT) to farmers”.

He said the PFAG members constitute the majority of smallholder farmers in the various Districts and, PFAG led their Onion farmers to the Ministry for support, so far, there were no reports among these Groups of any government investment.

Dr Nyaaba said the Association would like the Ministry to explain when and where these inputs were supplied and details of the farmers who received them.

“We call for a proper explanation to Ghanaians as to why the Ministry is now involved in input distribution against the PFJ 2.0 model of anchor farmers distributing the inputs,” he added.

He said in addition, the Ministry had already estimated the number of seeds and fertilizers it would facilitate and provide for the 2024 planting season under the PFJ 2.0, however, these revelations do not portray transparency and clarity on the PFJ 2.0.

He urged the Ministry to provide clarity on these issues and provide a breakdown of beneficiaries, how they were selected, and which aggregator undertook that task.

The Executive Director called on the media and all value chain actors to be on alert as the government was possibly going to take them for granted for reporting on investments that never happened.

He further urged the Auditor General to pay more attention to the agricultural sector by auditing the inputs distributed under PFJ 2.0 to save the farmer and the Ghanaian taxpayer money being diverted for personal interest.

He said the 2024 budget highlighted government efforts to address heavy spending on poultry imports under the PFJ 2.0 and with this, the poultry sector was to see a facelift through the anchor and out-grower system in five regions (Ashanti, Greater Accra, Bono, Bono East, and Eastern regions). “This is expected to produce 65,000 MT of broilers in 2024,” he added.

He said the introduction of PFJ 2.0 to replace PFJ 1.0 was a step in the right direction as PFJ 2.0 was expected to put less strain on the government due to private sector participation.

Notwithstanding, PFAG was expecting to see more committed investment from the government given that the agricultural sector is too risky and vulnerable to be left in the hands of private individuals.

He said with a total budget allocation of GHS 3,020,653,634 to agriculture with (700 million) about 23.2 percent allocated for the implementation of the PFJ 2.0 was far lower than the 2017 to 2021 budgets where the PFJ budget was over 70 percent of the Ministry’s total budget.

According to Dr. Nyaaba, given the broad coverage of the PFJ program and its role in addressing challenges related to inflation, stabilizing the cedi, food insecurity, and creating jobs for the yearning unemployed youth, the PFAG was expecting more committed investment in the sector than what is reported in the 2024 budget.