The government's announcement of the start of the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative has been criticized by Dr. Godfred Seidu Jasaw, the committee's deputy ranking member on the committee for food, agriculture, and cocoa affairs.

He claims that the recently introduced program is not unique and does not differ significantly from the original program, which did not achieve the desired outcomes.

“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,” he said.

He said it “is substantially not different from the PFJ this government has implemented since 2017.”

Dr. Jasaw added that the International Monetary Fund's existence would make it more challenging for the government to fund agricultural projects.

“What exactly are you going to spend the 660 million Ghana cedis approved for PFJ in the 2023 budget on since PFJ ended way back in December 2022? Why has government failed to support food crop farmers in Ghana since January 2023?

“Private agro-dealers and aggregators have been implementing various forms of input credit support schemes to farmers for many years now, what exactly would this new PFJ input credit do differently? In what exact ways are you going to get financial products to agribusinesses at so-called reduced interest rates?” he questioned.

The NDC MP also highlighted the plight of smallholder farmers and the dangers they confront when it comes to inputs.

“How are you going to protect the smallholder farmer from profit motives and market risks under which the input dealers operate? How will you achieve import substitution for critical commodities like rice, maize, and poultry since you have no measure in place to reduce input/production costs?

“How are you going to protect the agri-businesses against the risk of no or under-recovery of produce from beneficiary smallholder farmers? What is the exact start date the farmers will begin to benefit from the government's integrated smart input credit program?” he asked.

The MP also wanted to know where the program's funding will come from given that was not included in the 2023 budget.

“Who would hold the produce stock at the end of each production government or private businesses? What are the top 3 priority commodities for the short term out of the eleven crops selected for promotion in PFJ Phase 2 that drive down current high food prices and will deliver food security in the short term?

“What is the cost of PFJ 2.0 and where will its funding come from since it wasn’t provided for in the 2023 budget?” he added.