Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Ensure availability of land for success of PFJ

When he assumed the country’s presidency in January 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo introduced certain initiatives, one of which is Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).

As the name suggests, the initiative is to encourage the production of food and in the process provide jobs on the value chain.

The PFJ has five implementation modules, namely Food Crops; Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD); Greenhouse Technology Villages (3 Villages); Rearing for Food and Jobs ( RFJ); and Agricultural Mechanization Services (AMSECs).

The Food Crops module is aimed at promoting food security and the immediate availability of selected food crops on the Ghanaian market.

In July, this year, President Akufo-Addo announced a review of the PFJ, six years after its implementation, explaining that its new phase would involve the private sector and getting more youth to participate in it.

Yesterday, the President launched the PFJ Phase Two (PFJ 2 ) in Tamale, the Northern regional capital.

Launching the program, President Akufo-Addo said the first phase benefited over 2.7 million farmers and other value chain actors across the country and that the PFJ 2 would consolidate the gains and bring in more.

There is no doubt that the PFJ has benefitted the country, viewing it as growth in the agriculture sector, for instance.

It is said that from a 2.7 percent growth rate in 2016, the country recorded an average of 6.3 percent growth from 2017 to 2021, and an improvement of nearly 50 percent in rice self-sufficiency in 2022, from 29.1 percent in 2016.

It is also true that it has helped in ensuring a relatively stable food security environment with food self-sufficiency in major staples such as maize, cassava, and yam.

Even though we do not dispute these facts, we do not see the situation to be as bright as expected in the distant future, especially in the current circumstances where most youths do not want to take to farming and farmland is hard to come by.

It is one thing saying the PFJ 2 emphasizes more participation of the youth and another getting them to do it.

The youth of today want to have the taste of the good life being enjoyed by their peers elsewhere, so there is a need for the government to put in place structures that give promise of such a good life in agriculture too, particularly in the food crop sector.

Ready market and storage facilities to prevent loss of farm produce during bumper harvests are key motivating factors.

The difficulty in getting farmlands is partly due to the sweet talk estate developers are using to acquire lands from some gullible, greedy, and non-futuristic chiefs and other traditional leaders.

Thank God for the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Aheampong, acknowledging the fact that the PFJ 2 demands the availability of land, and has called on chiefs in the country to make lands available to farmers for them to venture into the program.

We hope other chiefs will follow the Overlord of Dagbon, Ndan Ya-Na Abukari Mahama, as he has assured the government of his readiness and that of his traditional authorities to release lands for potential farmers to join the PFJ 2

However, we think the government must check the takeover of farmlands in the estate development sector to safeguard food production for the country’s present and future generations.

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