Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto
Head of policy think tank, Danquah Institute, Richard Ahiagbah has disclosed that the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme under the Ministry of Agriculture deserves more credit than it is given.
According to him, the program is doing so well and providing numerous job opportunities for citizens.
In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ with Doctar Cann, the politician revealed that, “The Ministry of Agriculture does not engage the press to see their success stories but they have made some great strides under the PFJ programme.
Citing a thriving example, he revealed that under the programme, the Ministry has set up a poultry farm with about 5,000 birds (layers) at the Adawso in the Eastern Region purposefully for “egg production”.
On his authority the poultry farm has created jobs for a lot of women in the Adawso catchment area. “The women are now engaged in the egg distribution business with the facility producing around 50,000 eggs per week for sale. But the only problem is that trumpeting these achievements is not being done by the Ministry”.
Richard noted that some of these initiatives need to be supported more by Ghanaians to help reduce unemployment rates in the country, and urged the Ministry to keep the media informed on their progress.
The Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme is a Government of Ghana (GoG) designed and implemented programme aiming to promote growth in food production and security, create jobs across the country and produce the raw material to feed the agro-processing industries.
The Government of Ghana is committed to growing the employment figures by enabling farmers to prosper.
The PFJ focuses on delivering improved seeds, fertilizers and extension services to smallholder farmers across the country at a 50 percent subsidy absorbed by the Government.
