‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ targets 5000,000 farmers - Minister

Government is planning to register some 500,000 farmers under the ‘Planting for Food & Jobs’ programme this year.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture in-charge of Horticulture, George Oduro, who disclosed this at Sandema during a working tour of the Builsa North District, said the programme’s target of working with 200,000 farmers across the country last year was exceeded.

According to him, even though some challenges affected the smooth implementation of the programme in 2017, a total of 201,620 farmers registered and participated in the programme while a total of 745,000 direct and indirect jobs were created.

He said government has made some budgetary allocation to address the possible invasion of farms by the Fall Armyworms, among others.

Most of the farmers complained about the lack of storage facilities for their produce.

They therefore appealed to government to take the construction of warehouses seriously so as to encourage more farmers to go into large-scale farming under the programme.

One of the farmers at Chuchuliga, for instance, said he harvested 180 bags of maize, but because there was no warehouse in the area to keep the produce, he kept them at a walkway in his house.

Another farmer, Samuel Abiayega, National Best Livestock Farmer for 2016, told the Deputy Minister that he increased the size of his farm from 76 acres to 150 acres due to the support he received under the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme in 2017.

He called on government to support farmers in the district by constructing big warehouses to store their farm produce after harvest.

At Akandem Farm at Sandema, the Farm Manager, Solomon Akanpisi, commended the government for starting the programme despite many obstacles, saying the company’s out growers for the first time in many years produced more than the company had anticipated.

In 2017, the Akandem Farm produced a total of 641 bags of maize from its 421 acres of land.

The Farm Manager added that the number was below their target and attributed that to poor rainfall in 2017.

However, the out growers produced a total of 871 bags of maize, which exceeded their target for the year.

The Deputy Minister assured the farmers that some measures had been put in place to buy their produce for the National Buffer Stock Company to be distributed to schools across the country.