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Despite her busy schedules engaging in various humanitarian service aimed at empowering the vulnerable in the society, the Second Lady, Mrs. Samira Bawumia, is leading a nationwide crusade to get women in constituencies across the country to participate in the government's flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme.

The affable Second Lady, whose preoccupation, since the NPP assumed power, has been to support women and the vulnerable in the society, is also advocating for women farmers in the country to fully benefit from the government's flagship agricultural policies.

Mrs. Samira Bawumia is on a regional tour, beginning from the Ashanti Region to meet with constituency women organizers, queen mothers and also engage with widows as part of her empowerment project.

The Second Lady will also visit market centers to interact with queen mothers of the various foodstuffs to explain to them the need for them to also participate in the programme.

She was met on arrival by hundreds of beneficiaries of the PFJ programme in the Ashanti Region who were clad in PFJ t-shirts and holding banners with the inscription 'Planting for Food and Jobs beneficiaries welcome Second Lady to the Ashanti Region" 

On Friday, Mrs. Samira Bawumia paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to formally announce her presence in the region.

The participation of women in agriculture in Ghana and the rest of the continent is considered to be very low, a situation attributed largely to unfavorable land ownership policies, customs and other traditions which frown on women owning lands or taking full ownership of agricultural produce.

However, with the introduction of the government's flagship Planting for Food and Jobs, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is seeking to bridge the gap and ensure active participation of women through provision of adequate incentives in farming such as improved seeds, fertilizer and mechanization.