‘Planting for Food and Job’ Not Based Along Political Lines – MOFA Technical Director Refutes Claims
Technical Adviser at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Krobea Asante has debunked allegations made by the president of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, Mr. Emmanuel T. Mensah that the ‘Operation Planting for Food and Job’ policy is politically motivated.
According to him, Mr. Emmanuel T. Mensah has no bases for such an allegation and entreated Ghanaians to treat the allegation with the contempt it deserves.
The president of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, GNAFF, Mr. Emmanuel T. Mensah had claimed that the ‘Operation Planting For Food and Jobs Policy’ being implemented by the current administration has its own political ambitions to satisfy its hungry political supporters.
Mr. ET Mensah while speaking on Rite FM’s Agric Forum attributed what he described as the failure of the policy to cronyism on the part of government while it disregarded its focus group which is the farmers.
“The Operation Planting for Food and Jobs Policy failed because of the way and manner it was started as many people enrolled by the policy are not farmers and this is because before the implementation of the policy, the Ministry Of Food And Agriculture knew the people to benefit from the policy,” he claimed.
According to him, the country did not gain any profit from the huge sum of tax payers’ money pumped into the policy.
But reacting to the allegations, Mr. Krobea Asante reiterated the position that the current administration has the interest of the country’s farmers at heart and has no intension to politicize “the sector that puts food on the table of Ghanaians which is also the main pillar of the country’s economy since it is the reason why Ghana lives.”
Mr. Krobea said there are a lot of policies to be enrolled by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to improve the agricultural sector to bring relief and development into the life of the farmers.
This he indicated is to attract more youth and investors into the sector, stressing that all those policies are devoid of any political considerations.
“The entire Ministry of Food and Agriculture want something good for farmers so what do we stand to gain if we put our people there. We all want something good for the sector so how does it profit us when we push only our people to benefit from the policy?” Mr. Asante questioned.
The technical adviser further noted that the beneficiaries are all Ghanaians and not farmers from neighboring or foreign countries and none of the farmers can come out to say that he/she was prevented from registering because of their political background because that was the caution they gave to the various agric directors. They are ready to deal with anyone who tries to politicize such a policy which is bringing relief to farmers in the country.
Mr. Asante therefore advised all Ghanaians to desist from playing politics with the agricultural sector.
Source: Austin Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org/austinofori.addo@gmail.com
Well said. Agriculture should be treated equally with the same respect and concern as it is done for the health and security workers in the country. As no one plays politics with these services, the same should apply to agriculture. Food is one of the basic needs of life, it’s the only need that equally depends much of our efforts and commitments. Therefore if we play and joke with our food systems, for the sake of politics, we are just playing and joking with our Lives.
Well said