The Northern Regional Farmers Association (NRFA) has jumped to the defence of the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto and the Ministry following hollow and unsubstantiated claims by a group calling itself Concerned Farmers Association.

According to the Northern Regional Farmers Association, it will be absurd and highly preposterous for any individual or a group to criticize the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, which has not only salvaged the hitherto ailing agricultural sector but has also brought dignity and respect to farmers across the country.

The NRFA argues that the PFJ policy is the best thing to have ever happened to farmers in the country, stressing that the policy has revived and restored hope to the agric sector.

"Without the PFJ programme, only God knows where some of us would have been. We completely lost hope until this government introduced the PFJ programme" He emphasized.

In a swift response to the Concerned Farmers Association who alleged that the PFJ policy has been poorly handled by the Minister and the Ministry, the NRFA warned the group not to allow themselves to be politically influenced.

"The PFJ policy is the single biggest programme any government since independence has ever introduced into this country. It is a demonstration of how committed the President and the Minister have for we farmers. We want all our colleague farmers to support the Minister and not allow themselves to be politically influenced" He noted.

The spokesperson for the NRFA, Alhaji Adams Nasiru observed that the interventions introduced by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture under the PFJ have had huge socio-economic impacts on farmers, particularly those in the northern parts of the country.

He said the supply of improved seeds and subsidized fertilizers, as well as the availability of ready markets for the produce had been very beneficial to the farmers.

On the claims that the Ministry had allegedly wasted funds on the fight against the deadly Fall Armyworms, Alhaji Adams Nasiru said but for the swift intervention of the Ministry, the pests would have devoured their farms.