Ghana’s Agriculture Minister has indicated that his government Planting for food and jobs have been a success. He scored himself and the government 100%  for the policy.

Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said the impact of the policy on Ghana’s agricultural sector has been astounding. He added that  he is hopeful the policy will continue yielding phenomenal results in the coming years.

“Its impact is changing the psychology of people towards agriculture, attitude towards agriculture. You cannot put a value on it. You’ll have to go to the field to see the number of young people, professional people who are now coming into the field.”

He stated that since the introduction of the policy many professionals have entered into farming which hitherto was not the case. He cite some examples to buttress his point

“On Saturday within a matter of two hours, I met two farmers who are medical doctors who have resigned and have entered into agriculture on a full-time basis.

“One of them doing coconut plantation with all kinds of products from coconuts, very interesting. And the other one was with his mother and family near Asamankese planting 5 acres of maize, cassava and so on.

“So within two hours I’ve met two medical doctors who had resigned and were permanently into agriculture, and that phenomenon is all over the country.”

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The Minister  who spoke to Joy News further added “Last year when we went to Ejura, I had a forum for farmers and this lady stood up and was saying look, now it’s not only us, teachers, medical doctors, nurses, everybody is coming into the field to plant and it is the contribution of Planting for Food and Jobs in changing the psychology of the attitude of people towards farming and a lot of people are moving into agriculture.”

The Minister described critics of the policy of being unrealistic.

What is the problem with the Agric. Minister’s assessment?

We don’t begrudge the Minister’s assessment at all. After all, who will ever fail an exams that they have set themselves.

The good news is that the Minister assessment can be validated any time we visit the market. The prices of food have more than doubled, yet he wants us to believed the policy is doing well.

He said it is external factors that is to be blamed for the soaring food prices. The external  factors the Minister added included fuel prices and its associated transport fares. This is not and cannot be entirely true. If you ask residents of Techiman which is the main centre of food in this country, they will tell you that food prices have ballooned over there.

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The Minister said in 2020 during a visit with the President to Bolgatanga that on his way to the Bolgatanga, he saw

people putting up block houses and that it was the planting and food policy which was making this possible.

Since that time till date, I take what the Minister says with a pint of salt.

Poultry farmers have lamented the shortage of maize and the country have imported maize and the Minister still wants us to believe that planting for food and jobs have been successful?

I sincerely believe that the Minister is not living in the same country with us.