The Agriculture Director for the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern region, Mr. David Dokli has stated that government’s Planting for Foods and Jobs policy has created some 800 jobs in the district 2017. According to him, over 800 farmers and casual workers have benefited from the policy.
Agric Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto has announced that government’s planting for food and jobs has created some 745,000 jobs.
Mr. Dokli who was speaking to Rite news in an interview said the Department of Agriculture also received about 3000 bags of NPK and 1500 bags of Urea in the major season with corresponding quantities of the two inputs with only Urea running short of 80bags of the previous number of bags.
The Agric Director also said that though the yield studies is not ready, the department has visited some fields where the PFJ policy is being ran for assessment and could testify that food commodities were growing well.
He however added that the quantity of maize produced in the major season was 163bags though that figure decreased in the minor season.
The department, according to Mr. Dokli also forced to decrease its target for the season due to the inability for some farmers to pay off all their debts. He nevertheless hoped to apply for an increment if the debts are duly paid on time by the farmers.
According to him, the jobs created includes areas of input supply and distribution of surplus food resulting from the programme.
The planting for food and jobs programme is a flagship policy of the governing New Patriotic Party to help address the declining growth of the agricultural sector of the country.
Under the programme which started with seed capital of Ghc 560 million, about 200,000 farmers have been provided with fertilizers as well as other farming inputs.
Source: Joyce Bedeley/ritefmonline.org/jbedeley9357@gmail.com
I think the “free Chinese TV analogy is instructive. It immediately brought to mind those well funded and good-intentioned aid organizations that helicopter in and give away food, clothes and medicine. It”s not difficult to predict the catastrophic effects on local economies, and farmers in particular. Should I protest while my village gets free food from some UN aid convoy? Free food = richer! And anyway, I”m not even a farmer. But long term, and big picture, I assure you it will be a total disaster for my community.