The government’s planting for food and jobs policy (PFJ), according to Edward Kareweh, general secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), has been entirely ineffective.
According to government data, the PFJ has had a positive impact on the agricultural sector. For example, farmer participation has increased from 202,000 in 2017 to 1.2 million in 2019, and yields have increased for both paddy rice and corn (from 688,000 MT in 2016 to 925,000 MT in 2019 and 71% for maize, respectively).
However, Mr. Kareweh claimed in an interview with Emmanuel Agyabeng on Let’s Talk Business that these figures do not accurately reflect the state of the industry at the moment.
“The figures the government gave us does not represent what is on the ground. You cannot tell us that maize production for instance, in 2020, had gone up than in 2019 when there was no covid and then few months later, there was no maize in the system. The poultry industry has suffered severely and since it has not recovered, how do you reconcile this? When there is no food, you claim the policy has been successful. Where is the success? ”, he quizzed.
He also called out the government for blaming Covid-19 for the challenges in the sector.
“Government said that in 2023, we are going to be sufficient in production. Today, they are blaming everything on Covid when in 2020 we had higher production volumes than the year before. That tells us that Covid never affected agriculture”, he said.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Dr Charles Nyaaba has described decision of the Agric Ministry to issue fuel coupons for carting foodstuff as a Political talk.
The Agric ministry announced in July this year that it was considering offering fuel subsidies to transport firms and owners to enable them to haul foodstuffs to the market centres and force down food prices. Two months on, the peasant farmers say they are yet to see the policy being implemented.
When that announcement was made, it was always evident to us that the government lacked the necessary resources and that it wasn’t a wise course of action for them to take.
Anyone in the industry can tell you if the government is helping them transport food to metropolitan centers.
What method would they employ? It seemed to me like political talk,” Says Dr. Nyaaba
“In my opinion, the government occasionally makes problems for itself.
Things that we don’t insist on give the idea that they can be done, but when it comes to execution, they fall short.
Without taking into account the availability of resources to carry out their promises, I believe the administration is being overly ambitious.
Farmers’ faith in the government is actually declining, he continued.