Planting for Food and Job (PFJ) was implemented in the year 2017 under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and has been in existence till now. The focus was on five modules which were Food Crops, Livestock, Tree Crop, Horticulture and Mechanization.
The aim is to ensure food security, increase productivity and production, promote import substitution, promote value addition and agro-processing and create jobs and wealth.
The Obuasi East District Coordinating Director, Eric Aboagye-Mensah graced the occasion. Speaking on behalf of the District Chief Executive, he thanked the farmers for their immeasurable support in food production to Obuasi East and mother Ghana, seeing that food is always available for consumption.
Osei Yaw, District Director of Agric took the farmers through the phase II of the Planting for Food and Job. He said the phase II of the PFJ is a five-year program focuses on four main principles which are Value chain-driven, Private sector focused, Market driven and Inclusivity (women and youth).
He again said eleven (11) priority commodity value chain have been selected for the realization of the objectives of Planting for Food and they are Rice, Maize, Soyabeans and Sorghum for Grains and Legumes, Tomato, Pepper and Onion for Vegetables, Cassava, Yam, and Plantain for Roots and Tubes and for Poultry too Broiler was selected.
He said Aggregators, Financial Institutions, Input Suppliers, Service Providers, Farmers, Warehouse Infrastructures and Collateral Manager and Off takers are the key stakeholders of the PFJ Phase II.
Finally, he advised farmers to all get involved in the Planting for food and Job Phase II by registering with their Ghana card because there is no money involved, all input, fertilizers, pesticides and all other things to make their farming season the best is available.
Elder James Kwaku Amankwah, a farmer who could not hide his joy said the planting for food and job has come to help farmers since the phase II is free of charge.
He added that, farmers faced some challenges in the Phase I because some input dealers can tell you that they are out of stock but with this Phase II all the powers are in the hands of the farmer to decide the kind of inputs to request.