Agric Minister tours northern regions to assess impact of the PFJ
Last month when the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and his entourage of national directors and heads of projects set off on a tour of the five regions in the north (Upper West, Savannah, Northern, North East and Upper East) — the objective was simply fact finding.
On the ground there is supporting evidence that there is abundant foodstuff in the traditional markets, in the towns and cities, and improvised markets along the nation’s main roads for all to see.
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Revelation
But that is only an abridged story of Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ). The regional tour by Dr Akoto aimed to unravel the full story through visits to outlandish farms, mechanisation centres, dams, warehouses and interactions with chiefs, farmers, suppliers of seeds and fertilisers, extension agents, regional and district directors of agriculture and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives.
Rearing for Food and Jobs
The first stop on the six-day tour was the Upper West Region and then to the Savannah Region where the ministerial team held discussions at Jomoro with a poultry farmer. The poultry farmer was overjoyed with the cockerels supplied to him by the government under the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) module of the PFJ.
The farmer was overjoyed with the cockerels supplied to him by government under the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) module of the PFJ.
This is one of Five Modules of the PFJ which is targeting livestock such as sheep, goats, poultry – chicken and guinea fowl, dairy cattle and pigs.
Other Modules are the original Food Crops, Greenhouse Technology Villages and Agricultural Mechanisation Services Centres (AMSECs).
Cocoa Research Institute
The fifth module is the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) which aims to boost the production of tree crops such as cashew, mango, oil palm, coconut, coffee and shea.
It is this module that took the minister to the Cocoa Research Institute outstation at Bole where he encouraged the scientists to produce up to a million shea seedlings next year to help the government achieve the ambition of making shea the cocoa of the north.
At the meetings with agricultural staff, input dealers and farmers, the problems of farmers in particular were aired, which gave an opportunity for the solution oriented minister to request his national directors to explain and come up with answers.
Many of them commended the government on the provision of subsided seeds, fertilizers and modern extension know-how by the increased numbers of extension agents.
They said that those facilities, together with support from projects like Savanna Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP), Ghana Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (GASIP) etc. were helping them to increase their yields.
But they also talked about major problems such as poor roads, lack of markets for their produce, poor state of processing equipment and inadequate supply of light hand held farming equipment.
Courtesy calls
The visits could not have ended successfully without the minister and his entourage, which also included three Deputy Ministers of Agriculture and Local Government – Mr George Oduro, Dr Sagri Bambangi and Mr Collins Ntim, paying courtesy calls on the traditional rulers.
The chiefs did not hesitate to articulate the same views earlier expressed by their subjects, but in addition and in unison, they spoke about other things, such as the social and economic impact of the PFJ on the people of the north.
Yagbonwura
At Damango, the overlord of the Gonja land, the Yagbonwura told the minister, “Gonja has vast land surrounded by rivers to aid agriculture and therefore, I will like that you intensify PFJ activities here to benefit more of my people”.
Later, the Yagbonwura invested the Dr Akoto with membership of the Gonja tribe and formally invited him to the 10th anniversary celebration of his enskinment.
Durbar
In Tamale the durbar of input dealers, farmers and staff was the scene of eulogies for the PFJ campaign. The Minister was pointedly advised to listen to the informed views of farmers in the area rather than politicians and other functionaries who were critical for selfish reasons.
Dr Akoto took the opportunity to advocate for the formation of cooperatives or groups by farmers to enable them to access finance and equipment from government and other institutions.
For his turn, the chief of Diare, Naa Alhaji Bukali II welcomed the minister to his palace with the assurance that there was now food security in the country.
In the North East Regional capital, Nalerigu, the chief’s palace was the venue for a repeat of the list of common problems facing farmers.
Upbeat
Nonetheless, the chiefs and people were upbeat about the success of Planting for Food and Jobs and therefore, went ahead to proclaim Dr. Akoto as the minister for “Too much Food”.
The last farmers’ rally at Walewale saw the Deputy Minister and Member of Parliament (MP) for the area Dr. Bambangi taking pains to explain and address the problems of his people.
A formula for the success of the tour is that even though instant explanations and solutions were given to the problems of the farmers, detailed notes were also taken for follow-up actions to be taken to aid long lasting solutions and also planning for the future.
The Minister’s fact finding regional tours are scheduled to continue to other regions.