‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ policy gets international attention

Government’s flagship agricultural programme, “Planting for Food and Jobs,”has attracted international interest at the ongoing 52nd AfDB Annual Meeting in India.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto,who is leading Ghana’s delegation to the event, gave a presentation during which he highlighted government’s flagship policy aimed at turning around the fortunes of the ailing agricultural sector in the country.

Speakers and discussants, made up of investors, government officials and development partners, exhibited key interest in the efforts being made by government to revamp the agricultural sector and create jobs for the youth.

The Minister's presentation focused among other things on how to bridge the huge gap between food imports and local production as a way of boosting the sector and building the economy.

He further touched on how the Government of Ghana intends to modernize Agric and encouraging the youth to consider farming as a lucrative business.

Dr. Afriyie Akoto was on a panel discussion with the Founder of the World Food Prize, Norman Borlaug and the Chairman of the John Kufuor Foundation, Prof. Baffour Agyemang Duah.

The Minister has also been touting the contributions of women in Ghana to the growth and development of agriculture. He noted that women play key role in terms of production and marketing of farm produce.

He said in recognition of their role, the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has a permanent directorate, Women in Agriculture Directorate (WIAD) under the Ministry, that deals with formulating policies and programmes that seek to empower and resource women engaging in the agricultural business.

The roundtable discussion was organized by the Self-Employed Women Association (SEWA), a renowned women-based Non-Governmental Organization in India.