Planting For Food And Jobs: Technical Committee Outdoored In Brong Ahafo

The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, on Tuesday inaugurated the Brong Ahafo regional technical committee that will see to the implementation of government programme, ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, in the region.

The campaign which will in the next farming season will create over 750,000 jobs for the youth, is scheduled to be launched on 19 April, 2017 in Sunyani, by the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo.

With a call on the youth and the public to start venturing into commercial farming, the Agric minister said the Campaign would focus on four key commodity value chains: maize, rice, soya bean, sorghum and vegetables, whilst the technical team that has been constituted coordinates and monitor the main activities along the five pillars of the programme and capture it in their action plan.

Besides government subsidizing inputs like fertilizers and quality seeds, provision of dedicated extension services, marketing strategy and the infusion of electronic platform in undertaking all activities in food and agriculture, and e- Agriculture to those who will be enrolled onto the programme, Dr Akoto further added that “the secondary objective of the campaign is to provide job opportunities for the unemployed youth in the agriculture and allied sectors through both direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Also the tertiary objective is to create general awareness for all formal workers and companies to either have farms to grow some cereals or vegetables, especially when enough land is not available and accessible”, he stressed.

Dr. Afriyie Akoto said about 3,760723 metric tonnes of produce at a face value of GH1.3billion would be created this year from the programme, when compared to the 2016 production year.

The Brong Ahafo regional Minister, Lawyer Kwaku Asomah Cheremeh, who Chairs the committee, in a speech stressed that huge funds have been fused into the project hence the need for all to ensure successful implementation of the programme.

He reiterated the need for registered farmers to be educated on the ongoing projects, and called on the ministry of Food and Agriculture to make good use of the extension officers who would be assigned to the programme to support the farmers.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of the ministry,Dr. Cyril Quist said all the district and municipal agric directors were present and had pledged their commitment to the success of the project.