President Akufo-Addo has said that his administration will continue to place a high priority on the country’s agricultural sector.
Speaking at the 2022 National Farmers’ Day celebrations on Friday, December 2, he asserted that in order to achieve his goals, his administration has already made numerous investments in the sector.
The National Farmer’s Day celebrates farmers and fishermen for their immense contributions towards nation building.
Per reports, at least 20 to 3o% of the nation’s total revenue is derived from the agricultural sector.
According to the president, in 2016, his outfit acquired maize and rice production levels of 1.7 million metric tonnes and 665,000 metric tonnes, respectively.
“Agriculture will continue to remain a top priority of my government. The massive investments made in the sector attest to this fact. The positive narrative about the government’s support to the agriculture sector is that, unlike several other countries.
“Ghana is better prepared, and has demonstrated resilience to the current adversities threatening to destabilise our food systems. This has been possible because of the sound, pragmatic policies and programmes rolled out at the inception of my stewardship,” he added.
Touching on the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, he stated that the initiative has enabled Ghana to achieve food security, and for that reason, the country is well poised to deal with challenges that may undermine food production.
He lauded farmers, fishers and other value chain participants for embracing the project as well as playing significant roles in making it a success.
“The credit must go to our gallant farmers, fishermen, and value chain actors who embraced the PFJ policy and leveraged the opportunities created by the enabling environment for agricultural development.”
“Our flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), with its focus on improving farm productivity, through the use of technology on farms, has succeeded in increasing our food security, and opened up new opportunities for diversifying our agricultural exports by promoting six (6) tree crops for future substantial foreign exchange earnings.”
In order to discourage the price hikes of commodities on the market, the government set up the PFJ Market, which transports goods from agricultural regions and farm gates to the capital city, Accra, for sale at lower costs.
The project consists of five implementation components: food crops, Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), greenhouse technology villages, and Raising for Food and Jobs (RFJ).