PFJ lessons must guide GFP

Efforts by successive governments through various interventions to ensure the country attains food sufficiency have remained elusive. 

For decades, we have continued to face persistent challenges: low productivity due to limited adoption of improved technologies, inadequate extension services, poor market linkages, low value addition and weak infrastructure.

Ghana is endowed with fertile land, abundant water resources, ample sunshine and a youthful population, as well as strong research institutions and technical expertise.

But currently, the challenge lies in translating this potential into sustainable agricultural growth that feeds our people, supports industry, creates jobs and boosts rural incomes.

The immediate past government introduced the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) with the overarching aim of increasing food production, promoting farming as a business, reducing food imports, creating jobs and improving food security.

It did this by supporting farmers with market access, extension service and subsidised inputs such as fertiliser and improved seeds.

Though a great initiative, which was hailed throughout the country, it could not be sustained because there were many saboteurs who were lurking within the programme’s implementation, as well as the government’s failure to pay for inputs promptly.

Consequently, PFJ, with all its lofty objectives, struggled to succeed, especially at the latter stage of PFJ One, while the PFJ2.0, which was introduced to right the wrongs of the initial one, could not meet expectations.

It is in this direction that the Daily Graphic welcomes the Feed Ghana Programme (FGP) with a caution that even though it comes with equally very good intentions, its implementation has to be guarded against the pitfalls witnessed in the previous interventions by the immediate past government.

The FGP is a new vital agriculture programme to enhance food security, alleviate poverty among farmers, attract young people and women to venture into agriculture and stabilise food prices across the country.

Launching the programme, the President said the time had come for the nation to take bold and decisive actions on agriculture, and as such the nation must no longer treat the sector as an afterthought, but place it at the centre of our national economic transformation. 

We see the flagship programme, which calls for an all-hands-on-deck approach, as a worthy call as the country continues its search for food security.

The programme’s objective cannot be shouldered by the government alone, and that is why private involvement is crucial for its success.

So, creating the necessary conducive environment for the private sector and making available the needed infrastructure is essential for their full involvement.

However, the Daily Graphic is cautioning the government against the pitfalls experienced by the PFJ because the FGP has almost similar features as the PFJ, and if its implementation is not handled well, it could suffer a similar fate.

The good thing with the implementation of the FGP is that it has higher chances of succeeding because the implementers have the experience of the PFJ to guide them.

We are happy to learn of the goodwill the FGP has already started receiving.

For instance, information available shows that the national service scheme, the prisons service, the National Youth Employment Agency, faith-based organisations (churches and mosques) and universities such as the KNUST, University of Ghana and many others have all expressed the strongest desire to participate in the programme. 

Already, President Mahama is rallying all senior high schools with available land, assuring them of support so that they can engage in crop and livestock farming to support the School Feeding Programme. The FGP, thus, has a greater chance of success.

The Daily Graphic appeals to those who will be in charge of the implementation of the programme to demonstrate patriotism.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, who will supervise the implementation of the programme, must avoid partisan considerations in its rollout. 

It would not be out of place to consider party loyalists who have what it takes to help in the execution of the programme, but it would be problematic if the award of contracts or distribution of inputs is done irrespective of the capacity of the beneficiaries. Such people become untouchable even when they are not doing what is right.

Clearly, it was one of the biggest causes of the failures of the implementation of the PFJ One and Two.

We need to learn from our previous mistakes to move forward as a country.