Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta has disclosed that, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture will launch a new model of the Planting for Food and Jobs, (PFJ) programme to rope in more crops.
The Minister, who was in parliament to deliver the 2020 budget statement to the august house, said Planting for Export and Rural Development, (PERD) will promote crops like coconut, cashew and coffee, among others.
“The Ministry will also launch the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) model of the Planting for Food and Jobs. The model will promote selected tree crops including coconut, cashew, coffee, rubber, mango and oil palm, and diversifying away from the dominant cocoa crop,” he said.
He said Government was also establishing cattle ranches in selected locations to address the persistent conflict between the Fulani herdsmen and food crop farmers.
“A model ranche with a carrying capacity of 6,000 animals was established at Wawase in the Afram Plains. In anticipation of increased production from PFJ, the Ministry completed the rehabilitation of five warehouses at Yendi, Tamale, Wenchi, Sunyani and Kumasi.”
He projected that in 2019, the Ministry will construct additional 30 new warehouses equipped with seed cleaners, dryers and weighing scales to minimize losses along the supply chain.
In the cocoa sector, Mr. Ofori Atta said, despite the significant decline in world cocoa price by almost a third, Government maintained the producer price at GHS7,600.00 per tonne to ensure that farmers did not unduly suffer loss of income.
He also disclosed that, to support the National Agenda for Jobs, Government will roll out the “Aquaculture for Food and Jobs” (AFJ) flagship Programme in 2019 to complement the ongoing “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ) initiative.
He explained that the AFJ Programme will mobilize and train 10,200 unemployed youth in modern aquaculture production technique, and be supported with inputs such as fish feed, fingerlings, tanks and cages to engage in commercial fish farming.
The programme, he said, will be implemented in collaboration with “Feed Ghana’ and Enterprise Ghana modules of the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) Secretariat.
Story filed by Ruth Abla Adjorlolo
