As part of final engagements on the PFJ 2.0, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) engaged stakeholders across the Southern belt to deliberate on the government’s “Planting for Food and Jobs Phase Two” (PFJ 2.0). The program, organized with support from OXFAM, was held in Accra and brought together farmers, input dealers, civil society organizations, officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture from the Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Central, Volta and Oti regions.
The engagement session provided a platform for the association to sensitize its members on the five-year strategic plan and roll out of the PFJ 2.0 spearheaded by the Ministry while obtaining valuable insights and feedbacks from stakeholders on the implementation of the program.
Mr. Bismark Owusu Nortey, the Acting Executive Director of PFAG emphasized that the PFJ 2.0 which is an enhanced version of the program initiated in 2017 has shifted from the input subsidy to a smart input credit system. He recalled earlier consultations in the northern and middle belts, which had brought to fore some peculiar challenges with the program including poor timing, logistical challenges among others. He indicated that the Association was in the final stages of developing a monitoring report of the PFJ 2.0 to be submitted to government for their consideration.
Stakeholders were taken through the modalities of the program including the priority crops, role and responsibilities of value chain actors and service providers, as well, delving into the modalities of the PFJ 2.0, including registration onto the Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness Platform (GHAAP) which stores data relevant to the program. Participants were further taken through the apps designed for various stakeholders including farmers, and extension officers familiarizing themselves with the usage of the app. Concerns of farmers were tabled out for responses by officials of the ministry with issues such as slow pace of farmer registration, low sensitization of the program among farmers dominating the feedbacks.
The participants were engaged to solicit their perspectives on various areas of concern spanning from the effectiveness of agricultural policies, adequate sensitization sessions for farmers as well, registration of farmers. Farmers welcomed the improved version of the government program touting it as a means to supporting farmers to access productive inputs and markets for produce but called the attention of the government to devoid the program of politics to ensure sustainability. Furthermore, stakeholders expressed concerns about the sensitization of the program among farmers indicating the low level of sensitization, calling for the need to adopt diverse means of disseminating information. Similar feedbacks such as the slow pace of registration of farmers, poor timing of program implementation dominated among participants. Concerns about assigning aggregators to unfamiliar locations were discussed of which farmers indicated aggregators must be allocated to areas that they have operated over time in order to leverage on existing relationships to ensure payment recovery. Farmers were encouraged to embrace the program, ensuring the supply of quality food commodities.