Agric Ministry rolls out Planting for Food and Jobs Phase II
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has rolled out the planting for foods and jobs phase II(PFJ) 2.0 programme as part of the effort to transform the country’s agriculture sector.
The programme seeks to promote agriculture development, food security, increase productivity as well as job creation.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Bryan Acheampong addressing the media said the Ministry have embarked on farmer registration for PFJ 2.0 and the exercise will be conducted across the 16 regions and the 261 districts in the country.
“To facilitate the process, a mobile and web application platform, dubbed” the Ghana Agricultural and Agribusiness Platform (GhAAP) have been developed”, he said and explained that Agricultural Extension Agents have (AEAs) and other technical officers have been trained on how to use the platform with the needed support such as tablets for data capturing.
According to him, the program is carefully designed to build on the initial program as the Ministry is committed to ensure the successful implementation as part of the effort to empower farmers and foster sustainable agriculture sectors in the country.
“To participate in the program, farmers in these regard must duly have access to land or a farm, must be a Ghanaian citizen with valid Ghana card engage also in farming on potential commodity crops, a legal registered company capturing their profile at the district levels.
“The PFJ 2.0 programme takes a new approach in the agricultural value chain and will enhance linkages among players along selected agriculture commodity value chains and improving service delivery to maximize impacts’’ he said.
The Ministry have introduced a substitution of direct input subside with a smart agricultural support system in the form of a zero – interest input credit systems where payment will be in-kind.
“The Ministry is therefore calling on stakeholders in the agricultural space to contact their local agric extension agents at the district departments of agriculture to register for the PFG 2.0 program” he advised and indicated that the programme is anchored on five main strategic elements, namely, input credit system, storage distribution and infrastructure, of take arrangements digitized platform and line of sight management and coordination.
Source : Ben LARYEA/johnawuniktv@gmail.com
