The General Agriculture Worker’s Union (GAWU) is raising some eyebrows about the activities of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in the food distribution chain concerning its Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) pilot market.
According to GAWU, the ministry has no business in the food middlemen business.
The MoFA last Friday, November 11, 2022, piloted the sale of some selected food items at its forecourt in Accra to cushion some Civil and Local Government staff to get affordable food items in the wake of food price hikes in the country.
The General Secretary of GAWU, Edward Kareweh questioned the ministry’s rationale for introducing the programme.
He was of the view that the ministry was usurping the work of the National Buffer Stock Limited while speaking in an interview on the 505 news analysis programme hosted by Valentina Ofori Afriyie on Accra-based Class 91.3 FM on Friday, November 11, 2022.
He was categorical in saying the ministry has no mandate to engage in such exercises when there is a dedicated company for doing so.
He further questioned the ministry’s budget for playing the role of food middleman in the food distribution and supply chain.
”The ministry ought to tell us which budget they are using for the pilot programme when there is the need for the ministry to scale up its supply of fertilizers to farmers among others in the country,” he stressed.
He said since 2021 the ministry has scaled down the supply of fertilisers to farmers across the country.
This should be a source of worry to the minister and the heads of departments at the ministry and not dabbling in the food supply chain.
He said there has been a drastic reduction in subsidies on fertilisers leading to a reduction in the volumes supplied to the farmers.
He added that what is needed to salvage the situation is investments in agriculture and not the ministry drifting to areas it has no mandate.
He said there is a shortage of maize which is a key component in PFJ crops and asked why the ministry is not working to make that available through the PFJ pilot market but rather focusing o plantain which is not part of the PFJ list of crops?