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Planting for Food and Jobs to get GH¢1bn in 2018 budget

Planting for Food and Jobs to get GH¢1bn in 2018 budget

The government plans to allocate some GH¢1 billion to the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFAJ) programme introduced in 2017.

This represents an increase of about 80 per cent over the GH¢560 million that was budgeted for the first phase of the programme.

The GRAPHIC BUSINESS is reliably informed that the amount would be used to provide improved seeds, fertilizers, dedicated extension services, marketing, e-agriculture and monitoring services.

The increase in allocation is expected to help fund the extra farmers that will be roped into the special programme aimed at increasing food production and job creation.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture, which is coordinating the programme plans to increase the number of registered farmers from 200,000 in the first year to 500,000 in 2018.

The ministry will also add new crops to the maize, rice, soybean, sorghum and vegetables, which were chosen for the first year.

As of August, this year, the ministry said some 188, 338 farmers had so far registered.

The number was about 11,662 short of the government’s target of 200,000 for the 2017 crop season.

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