The president of the republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo prior to the 2016 general election promised some flagship programs and general electorate bought into the idea and voted for him during the December 7 polls.
Among the flagship programs promised were Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Food and Export, Rearing for food and jobs, Rearing for food and Exports, Youth in Afforestation and so on and so forth.
After the 2016 election, H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo kept to his promise to implement those program as avenues to combat the then unemployment rate and the purported hardship in the country.
While a majority of Ghanaians praised him for the flagship programs, others were waiting to witness the impacts of these programs and the Dean of Business School at the University of Cape coast, Professor John Gatsi was not left out.
The renowned economist, seeks answers on the impacts of the government's policies in the nation after close to 6 years of implementation.
Speaking with Obido on Radio 1 100.7FM, the learned economist can not comprehend the impacts of these policies on Ghana's economy and seeks answers to that.
"We are saying planting for food and jobs and the Agric Minister will come out and say we have employed this number of people and it will turn out not to be true. We have produced these quantity of food and it will turn out not to be true. So what actually is the planting for food and jobs supposed to address? Is it supposed to address the quantity of the plus that we have the ability to produce in this country? But we are importing. Has it been able to address that. What are the implications of that on the amount of dollars we spend outside for importing. So those are the issues i'm raising" - Prof John Gatsi said.
He added that the Agric ministry should respond to why there are policies in Agriculture yet the nation imports a whole lot.
"When you come to Agriculture, we are spending a lot to import a lot of Sugar, a lot to import rice, a lot import tomato, ginger. what is the response from our Agric policy? Those one i will say we have woefully failed in factors that we have control over. You can have a policy that you are implementing but if the policy doesn't have a goal, then you have a problem." - Prof Gatsi maintained.
Planting for Food and Jobs is a flagship agricultural Campaign of the Government, with five (5) implementation modules. The first module PFJ (Crops) aims to promote food security and immediate availability of selected food crops on the market and also provide jobs. This module was officially launched by H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at Goaso on April 19, 2017 in the then Brong Ahafo Region.
The five Modules are:
•Food Crops (PFJ)
•Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD)
•Greenhouse Technology Villages (3 Villages)
•Rearing for Food and Jobs ( RFJ)
•Agricultural Mechanization Services (AMSECs)
In your own opinion, how has planting for food and jobs affected the nation? send your comments below
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