The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) with support from GIZ and OXFAM in Ghana organized a one-day workshop convening various stakeholders across the country including members of the association, civil society organizations, donors, input dealers, aggregators and other stakeholders. The purpose of the event was to validate the findings collated from consultations with PFAG members and other actors across the country from the beginning of the year, with the aim to authenticate the findings for submission to the ministry of Food and Agriculture for consideration.
Mr. Bismark Owusu Nortey, the acting Executive Director emphasized that PFAG was keen on monitoring the roll-out of the PFJ 2.0 program throughout the life of the program. He mentioned that there were three stages of monitoring, pre-production, implementation and post-production stages, of which PFAG will periodically update the general public on the results from these monitoring processes.
The president of the association, Wepia Awal Adugwala in his opening remarks expressed concern that substantial number of farmers across the country in the mist of high input prices have not received support from the government through the PFJ 2.0 and called for swift effort to support smallholder farmers with the needed inputs for food production.
The draft monitoring report, was shared by a member of PFAG, Dr. Charles Nyaaba, which highlighted the lack of awareness and enthusiasm by farmers to register, resulting in less than 20% of farmers registering for the program, politicization of the program, lack of clarity among stakeholders and general logistical challenges with the program implementation. Recommendations on the way forward to ensure smooth implementation were also outlined. In a panel discussion session, stakeholders comprising of farmers, the director of the department of agriculture for the region, representatives of Croplife and Ghana Agriculture Workers Union reacted to the findings of the assessment. The discussions highlighted the various perspectives on the implementation and effectiveness of the program with stakeholders expressing both concerns and acknowledgement of progress.
In conclusion, farmers and other stakeholders validated the findings of the report and called for government to, as a matter of urgency, address these constraints to ensure that farmers are adequately benefiting from the program.