Planting for Food and Jobs has rendered farmers poorer – Odike

Businessman and a politician, Mr. Akwasi Addai Odike has attacked the Planting for Food and Jobs program implemented by the current government aimed at increasing farm produce for export and for local consumption claiming most farmers have become poorer as a result of the program.

“Planting for Food and Jobs has not served the purpose and it rendered most of the farmers poorer today”, he claimed during a post-Farmers’ Day celebration panel discussion MyNewsGh.com monitored.

According to Mr Akwasi Addai Odike who claims to have hectares of maize farms at Kwabre East in the Ashanti Region, farmers across the country are selling their farm produce at a very cheap price because of low demand.

“Because of fear of post-harvest losses, a farmer today has to sell his or her produce at very cheap prices after spending much time and money to harvest those farms produce”, He, therefore, called on the government to build more warehouses to store more farm produce for future use.

Meanwhile, Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, says the sector has seen a historic improvement under the Akufo-Addo government.

“For the first time in a very long time, in the history of public policy on Agriculture in Ghana, the budget allocated to Agriculture, both in my Ministry and other related ministries, exceeded 10 per cent of the total allocations for 2019. This is a very commendable and historic achievement. Government is repositioning Agriculture to play its expected role as a driving force of the country’s economic growth,” he stated.