745,000 Jobs Were Created From Planting For Food & Jobs In 2017

Government has said its Planting for Food and Jobs programme has in its first year alone created some 745,000 jobs.

The Agriculture Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said the jobs were created in the areas of input supply and distribution of surplus food resulting from the programme.

In an interview with Joy News’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo, the Minister said the government was hoping to create 750,000 jobs by the time the programme is rolled out and is getting close to achieving that feat.

“I am glad to say that when we did the calculation, we came close to 745,000 jobs created in the rural areas,” he told Joseph.

The Planting for Food and Jobs programme is a flagship policy of the governing New Patriotic Party.

Under the programme which was started with a seed capital of GHS560 million, about 200,000 farmers have been provided with fertilizers as well as other farming inputs.

Spanning a period of five years, the programme also hopes to create jobs to deal with the unemployment challenges in the country.

Dr Owusu Afriyie said much of that dream has been realized.

He said the jobs created have come about as a result of the need for more hands to maintain, apply fertilizers, harvest, carriage handling, processing and other activities on the farms.

“So you may have the same number of farmers doing the same acreages, but because of the increase productivity, it generates jobs,” he noted.

He criticised those who claim not to have seen any changes in the sector, saying “the difference is that you are introducing technology which enables productivity to double, quadruple and even go up 10 times and that in itself, down the line generates jobs for idle hands in the rural economy.”