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Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong has said that he is impressed with the results of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme.

According to him, the programme has been relatively successful since its implementation because it has given the Ghanaian populace access to an abundance of food products.

During his vetting session on Monday, February 20, 2023, he said that since the introduction of the programme, there has been a tremendous increase in the yields of maize, rice, and soyabeans.

“It’s a solid programme that was conceptualised and implemented by this government. Ranking, you will realize that on maize our yield was about 1.6 metric tons per hectare in 2016.

“Today the yield is around 4 metric tons. For rice, we were producing around 2.7 metric tons. Today we’ve about 4.5 metric tons. And for soyabeans we were about 2.7 and today we are about 4.

“ . . these are some of the things that planting for food and jobs have done. They’ve improved the yields such that the sector growth rate in 2016 which was hovering around 2.7 percent, today is averaging about 6 percent.

“So, if you look at all the metrics under the planting for food and jobs and all the grains except for rice, we’ve been achieving surpluses from 2016 to date…but in terms of contributing to ensure that food is available, the planting for food and job has been relatively successful.

“And I want to go and continue by supporting the various modules under the planting for food and jobs if given the opportunity to ensure that it achieves its full objective,” he said.

The Planting for Food and Jobs policy, which has been in existence for about six years, is to boost local production and reduce the importation of foodstuff.

The ultimate aim is also to help reduce the impact of imports on the cedi’s performance as it will reduce the high requirement for dollars for such purposes.

Under the Planting for food and jobs, every district or local authority is expected to select a crop that it has a comparative advantage in, where the government will support the cultivation of such crops with fertilizer, improved seeds as well as other improved technology.