A senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, Dr Priscilla Twumasi Baffuor has said the government must invest in initiatives such as the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)
She noted that projects such as the PFJ serve as job creation avenues hence, if the government wants to reduce the unemployment problem to the lowest level attention must be focused on these initiatives.
Dr Baffour further asked the government to grow the agric and manufacturing sectors of the local economy simultaneous in order to create the right jobs for the teeming youth.
She explained during the pre-budget analysis on TV3 Wednesday November 17 that a buoyant agric sector will ensure that the manufacturing sector has raw materials to operate.
If one, for instance the manufacturing sector, is develop above the agric sector, there would not be enough locally produced raw materials to feed the industry
“You are not creating enough jobs in the agriculture sector because you are mechanizing it, you do not have a lot of people in there. When you look at developed countries , you can take the USA, Canada for example, less than two percent of the population is into agriculture but they are able to produce to feed themselves and export because the whole process is merchandised and when that is done . So I am saying that when Planting for food and jobs and those initiatives those are the kinds of things that we expect government to be investing in so that it is not as usual ;let us give them fertilizer , employ ore labourers on the farm filed,
“We need to move a step ahead in adding value to the price that come out of the agricultural sector and that moves us into light manufacturing in the manufacturing sector.
“When you are able to do that the agric sector feeds the industrial sector and that is where massive jobs are created and that is where the jobs that a lot of the young people are looking for can be provided.”
The Planting for Food and Jobs is a flagship agricultural Campaign of the Government, with five (5) implementation modules.
The first module PFJ (Crops) aims to promote food security and immediate availability of selected food crops on the market and also provide jobs.
This module was officially launched by H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at Goaso on April 19, 2017 in the then Brong Ahafo Region.
The five Modules are: Food Crops (PFJ), Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), Greenhouse Technology Villages (3 Villages), Rearing for Food and Jobs ( RFJ), Agricultural Mechanization Services (AMSECs)
In Ghana, the food crops subsector is dominated by smallholder farmers whose cropping practices are characterized by: inadequate use of productivity – enhancing technologies, low use of quality seeds and fertilizers, weak market linkages.
These collectively hinder growths in farm productivity. In response, the Government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) initiated the first flagship module– Planting for Food and Jobs(PFJ) campaign in 2017.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana