Agric Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has disclosed that GH₵2.6 billion has so far been invested into government’s flagship programme in Agriculture, Planting for Food and Jobs.
According to him, this investment has yielded the needed result since the programme has been a success.
“I am happy to say that Planting for Food and Jobs has been totally funded by the Ghanaian taxpayer. This is a purely Government of Ghana-funded programme except for the Canadians who came in with some vehicles and logistics for our extension offices and the Ghanaian taxpayer’s money has been to the tune of GH₵2.6 billion in the 5 years.
Speaking on the Super Morning Show, on Wednesday, June 22, he stated that “regionally, the 5 northern regions have benefitted to the tune of 57% of this money and farmers in this country have delivered.
Further, he indicated that the over GH₵2 billion investment into the PFJ programme has yielded returns of about GH₵50 billion worth of Food, thus, refuting claims of food shortage in the country.
“The policy has really benefited Ghanaians [and] we have never been able to produce so much food than we are doing now. Last year we produced 3.1m metric tonnes and that’s huge within the period it was achieved… [and] anyone who says there is a food shortage in the country does not know what he is talking about,” he added.
Touting the achievements of the Akufo-Addo-led administration in the Agric sector, he scored the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs policy a 100% and said the impact of the policy on Ghana’s agricultural sector has been phenomenal.
“Going back into the history of government expenditure, there’s no government that has spent so much on Agriculture and farmers as the Akufo-Addo government and has had this magnificent impact and it has been internationally acknowledged that this [PFJ] program is running successfully.
He added that the Planting for Food and Job policy, despite its challenges, has enabled Ghana’s agriculture industry to be ahead of all the others in the ECOWAS region.