Planting For Food And Jobs Initiative Has Made Prices Of Food Cheaper – Minister

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said there has been a tremendous reduction in the prices of agricultural produce in the country since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over the administration of the state.

He said food inflation has reduced from 9.7% in 2016 to 7.2% in 2019, making the cost of food cheaper in the last three years.

The Minister attributed the development to what he claimed was the successful implementation of the Planting for Food and jobs initiative.

“Food prices have never been so cheap and I'm sure every one of you in this room will confirm that. So the overall food prices declined significantly in 2019 compared to 2018. The decline was 20 percent for maize, rice and sorghum and 38 percent for groundnut, cowpeas and soya beans and 45 percent for the decline in wholesale prices of cassava and plantain. Lower prices will, of course, imply an increase in disposable income for consumers and food inflation also reduced from 9.7 in 2018 to 7.2 in December last year.”

Touting the achievements of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for the past three years under his leadership, the Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said the government has created a huge number of jobs under his ministry.

“We created 745,000 jobs in 2017; in 2018 we created about 794,000 to 795,000 jobs and 946,000 in the last year.

The Minister also said the government is in the process of importing machines for the milling of rice to boost local rice production.

“We are also bringing in a lot of rice mills, maize mills, soya mills as part of the mechanization in the centre so that farmers can have access to these machineries.”

Dr. Akoto Osei also mentioned that the government will inject an amount of 600 million cedis to fight the swollen shoot disease that has been destroying cocoa farms in the country.

“We have a plan to tackle and we have engaged the African Development Bank and they have made available $600 million for the cocoa sector and $200 million of that money will go into the fighting of the swollen shoot virus.”

The Minister stated that the government has no intention of placing a temporary ban on the importation of rice and poultry from countries affected by the Coronavirus.

The Planting for food and jobs

The Planting for Food and Jobs policy, which has been in existence for about three 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.

Even though crops such as Maize, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, and Vegetables including tomato, onion, and chili pepper are all cultivated under the policy, the cultivation of maize has been relatively dominant across the country.

As a result, in 2017, there was no importation of the grain as local producers recorded higher output, and have since been exporting some to neighbouring countries.

Food prices have reduced; but we must stabilize it – Esoko

Esoko Ghana , a provider of digital solutions and services for agriculture and data collection, had earlier admitted there was a reduction in food prices but charged the government to do more to stabilize the prices of food and other commodities on the market by boosting production.

“Comparatively, I'll say that what the President said there has been some price reduction in commodity prices since the implementation of the planting for food and jobs. It is because most often production has increased so when the harvest season is on, commodity prices are fairly very low” said Content Manager of Esoko Ghana, Francis Danso Adjei.

Citing some major problems faced by the agric sector during various food seasons, he called on the President to ensure that farmers don't run at huge losses as that affects their sales.

“Moving forward, he should look at the post-production of the chain that has to do with how we handle whatever we get at the end of the season; so that we will try and stabilize the prices and have enough volume to supply throughout the year, and not to have lower volume at certain times which will trigger price increases or have too much at certain times to lower the prices which will be a disincentive for producers to produce. So we need to try and make sure to reach a point where throughout the year, prices will be fairly stable and not fluctuate” he added.

---citinewsroom