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Govt has created 2 million jobs from Planting for Food and Jobs - Agric Minister

Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, the Minister of Agriculture, has disclosed that the Planting for Food and Jobs policy has helped a lot in solving the nation's unemployment challenges.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto

He said the initiative has provided over two million jobs since its inception in 2017.

Speaking to the press in Accra, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto said the five different modules being operated under the scheme have provided so many jobs.

“I don’t have the figures for each module now but I know that estimate as of 2020 we had created over 2million jobs from the five modules that we have been operating," he said.

The initiative has five modules under its umbrella which includes 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). 

Dr. Afriyie-Akoto also said the importation of maize is expected to reduce in the next three years.

Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto

Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto

According to him, since NPP resumed office, there has been a drastic reduction in maize importation as compared to statistics available for 2015 and 2016.

“In 2015 Ghana imported over 100,000 that’s 113, 000, 114, 000 metric tonnes of maize and then to nearly 80,000 metric tonnes of maize in 2016. When we came on imports of maize have virtually vanished, it went down from 80,000 to 40,000 in 2017 to 80,000 in 2018 and then these 2019, 2020 as special maize needed for poultry production which is the type we cannot produce in Ghana otherwise you would have zero in these two places,” he said.

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