The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, has announced that the government's second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative aims to achieve food self-sufficiency for the country within the next five years.

On Monday, August 28, 2023, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo inaugurated the second phase of the government's prominent agricultural initiative, PFJ, at the University for Development Studies in Tamale.

Following the launch, the Agric Minister expatiated on the gains that would accrue from the government's initiative during an engagement on Citi FM's Eyewitness News.

According to Mr Acheampong, the key focus of the initiative would be on the dietary needs of Ghanaians such as the cultivation of onions, tomatoes, grains among others.

"For grains, we are looking at maize, soya, rice and sorghum and for plantain tubers and roots, we are looking at plantain itself, cassava, yam and then, we are also focusing on one protein which is poultry and the focus on poultry will be broiler,” he added.

The cultivation of such crops in a period of five years, he said, would make Ghana food reliant and also provide the country the opportunity to grow the exportation of such food items.

“We are clear in our mind that with these 10 crops and poultry with the five-year development plan that have developed, we have a new marking scheme that we are setting for ourselves as a country. We should be food self-sufficient in tomato, onion, pepper, rice, maize, cassava, legumes, and yam, plantain. We should, in five years, be self-sufficient and be able to export these crops and poultry,” he said.

Increased investment in the cultivation of vegetables such as onions has become essential as Ghana now suffers the brunt of the Niger coup. Owing to the military takeover and the volatility of security in the West African subregion, countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso have closed their borders, making transportation of onions and other commodities difficult.

Recent reports indicate that Ghanaian traders in the onion business are at a loss due to the destruction of their commodities by suspected terrorists and their inability to move their goods easily due to the closure of borders. About 350 bags of onions meant for the Kwadaso Market last two weeks have perished due to the delay in delivery.

Planting for Food and Jobs

Designed to build upon the achievements of the initial program, the second phase of this initiative is a comprehensive five-year master plan aimed at revolutionizing agriculture in Ghana. It places a strong emphasis on modernization, achieved through the advancement of selected commodity value chains and active engagement of the private sector.

Speaking at the launch, President Akufo-Addo stated that the second phase, by design, “takes a holistic view and places greater emphasis on value chain approaches by focusing on strengthening linkages between actors along eleven selected agricultural commodity value chains broadly categorised into grains, roots and tuber, vegetables and poultry.”

Additionally, in phase two of the program, there is a focus on enhancing service delivery to maximize its effectiveness.

This involves replacing direct input subsidies with intelligent agricultural financial support, which includes comprehensive input credit options and provisions for in-kind payments.