Planting for food and jobs has prevented crop scarcity – Yofi Grant

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC), Yofi Grant has asserted that the planting for food and jobs policy implemented by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has presented a solution to crop scarcity in the country.

According to him, in some time past, some specific food crops become scarce at certain points in time which led to the hike in their prices. Citing the plantain crop as an example, he noted that this year, the plantain crop was in abundance and prices were even at an all-time low.

He made this statement in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Afrifa-Mensah’s on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show.

“In our first term of planting for foods and jobs, over a million holder farmers have benefitted and we have seen it immediately. We don’t have a food crisis like we used to have before to the extent that we are now exporting 19 food crops that we were importing before. For example, we were importers of corn but now we are exporting corn.”

“There is a tomato processing plant we set up working under the 1 District 1 Factory (1D1F) which is to make sure that our tomatoes produced in abundance does not go to waste. We also had an abundance of plantain this year and we did not even know what to do with the surplus.”

Mr. Grant furthered that agriculture is now a trigger for industrialization and that is how many developed countries reached their peak.

“It is estimated that over close to 60% of our population is engaged in agriculture somewhere along the value chain. The important thing was that agriculture could also be a trigger for industrialization. So we decided to push agriculture,” he explained.

Explaining the need for the planting for food and jobs policy, Yoofi Grant stated, “We came out with planting for food and jobs because we are predominantly involved in agriculture. But we realized that our agriculture is mainly subsistence and it is held up by small farms. So we decided to lift them up with science and technology to increase their yield.”

Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) 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 H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at Goaso on April 19, 2017, in the then Brong Ahafo Region.

The five Modules are:

•Food Crops (PFJ)

•Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD)

•Greenhouse Technology Villages (3 Villages)

•Rearing for Food and Jobs ( RFJ)

•Agricultural Mechanization Services (AMSECs)