According to Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the value of food commodities produced under the government’s flagship “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ) initiative was worth some US$6.1 billion for the last five years.
The Minister stated that, this was made possible after government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has invested some US$321million to procure seeds and fertiliser since inception of the programme.
“Since 2017, the government has used taxpayer’s money to subsidise seed and fertiliser to our farmers as a way of increasing productivity and ensuring food security. The farmers have not disappointed, as the investment made has more than doubled,” Dr. Afriyie Akoto told the B&FT.
With funding for maize, rice, soya-bean, sorghum, groundnut, cowpea, tomato, cucumber, cabbage, lettuce, onions, pepper, and carrot seeds being the government’s priority areas for fruit, vegetable, and grain production under the programme, fertiliser subsidies have made up a significant portion of the PFJ interventions programme over the past five years.