The Minority in Parliament has launched a scathing criticism against the second phase of the government’s flagship agricultural program, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo unveiled Phase Two of the PFJ at the University for Development Studies in Tamale on Monday, August 28, 2023. Intended to build upon the achievements of the initial program, the second phase outlines a five-year strategy to revolutionize Ghana’s agriculture sector. The plan emphasizes modernization by nurturing selected commodity value chains and fostering active private sector involvement.
However, a statement by the Minority signed by Dr. Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Deputy Ranking Member of the Committee on Food, Agriculture & Cocoa Affairs cast doubts on the actual impact of PFJ’s six-year implementation, claiming that increased production figures remain elusive.
“We have been tricked!!! After six (6) years of implementation of the PFJ programme, we still cannot account for the so-called increased production figures that are being reported by the Minister for Agriculture. Where is the maize? Where is the rice? Where are the Soyabeans? All other things being equal, we expect to have a glut in the system and that should drive down prices. On the contrary, food products are scarce and prices are skyrocketing. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have been tricked!!!”
The Minority expressed scepticism about the government’s ability to achieve substantial progress toward food security for the nation. They dismissed the second phase of PFJ as an image-saving exercise that fails to introduce significant changes, criticizing its potential to further enrich friends and family members of the government.
“After reading through the PFJ Phase 2 program document, we are sad to report that, there is nothing substantially new in it and will not deliver any significant march to food security for this country. It’s aimed at erasing the mess of PfJ 1 and creating an image-saving platform to continue the dissipation of this country’s resources through establishments by their friends and family”.
They said there’s nothing new about the 2nd phase of PFJ stressing that it will impoverish smallholder farmers.
“So clearly, there is nothing special about PFJ Phase 2.0. It’s just a way of telling us the government can no longer support input subsidy and that farmers will be left in the hands of private commercial entities to negotiate and transact their own production input regimes based on market determinants.”
“The PFJ phase is substantially not different from the PFJ this government has implemented since 2017, in fact, this new program will impoverish the smallholder farmer in a worse form as his faith will be determined by market forces. The government has no priority crops it’s prepared to commit finances on to reduce our import bill and achieve food sufficiency in the short to medium term. The whole production season for 2023 has been wasted and farmers have planted crops at full market price for their inputs. Expect higher food prices by the close of the year 2023 as farmers recover their full input cost. The language of the launched PFJ 2 document is flowery and highly theoretical.”
