The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana has revealed that 80% of farmers have yet to register for the Government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, which is now in its second phase. Mr. Awal Adugwala, National President of the Association, told the High Street Journal that this figure is based on an assessment conducted by the Association.
Registration for the PFJ programme is designed to be accessible to all farmers, with options for both online and in-person sign-ups. The process involves two stages: an initial registration requiring details such as the Ghana card, type of produce, and district name, followed by a mapping stage where Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) personnel map the farmers’ locations. Once registered, farmers receive resources such as fertilizers, seedlings, and chemicals on credit, which they are expected to repay at 50% discount after harvest.
Mr. Adugwala stated that MoFA officials have not visited farms to map them and onboard the farmers for the PFJ programme. As a result, many farmers have had to purchase inputs at high costs, leading to higher production expenses and lower output. This, he believes, is a major reason for the high cost of food this year. In June, food inflation was 24%, higher than the national average of 22.8%, with 16 of the 20 items with the highest rate of inflation being locally produced food items.
Responding to the claims made by the Peasant Farmers Association, Bagbara Tanko, Public Relations Officer for MoFA, declined to comment on the assertion that 80% of farmers have not registered for the PFJ programme. “I don’t know how and on what basis he came to that conclusion. I’m not privy to that so I prefer not to speak on that,” Mr. Tanko said. He questioned why the Association did not encourage their farmers to register if that was their finding.
Mr. Tanko provided the High Street Journal with a table titled “Farmers Onboarded and Inputs Distributed So Far under PFJ 2.0,” which states that a total of 428,641 farmers have been registered.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, 32% of the population is engaged in agriculture. With the country’s population exceeding 34 million, this translates to nearly 11 million people working as farmers.
