The Agriculture Department of the Akrofuom District Assembly on Tuesday 30th April, 2024 organised a sensitisation training for some selected farmers in the district on the phase II of the Government’s flagship programme – “Planting For Food and Jobs” (PFJ2).
The sensitisation programme was to equip the farmers with all the knowledge they needed to know about the programme and also how best they could reap the benefits thereof.
Addressing the farmers, the District Coordinating Director, Mr. Ebenezer Douglas Ntiamoah who represented the District Chief Executive, admonished the farmers to take full interest in the programme since there are many advantages in it for themselves as individuals, district and the nation as a whole.
He also added that the PFJ1 was a huge success in the district and is optimistic that the phase 2 would be better.
Mr. Ntiamoah also applauded the efforts of farmers in ensuring that food is always in abundance in the district.
For his part, the District Director of Agriculture, Mr. Richard Amoh Koranteng also said the programme aims at boosting self-sufficiency in selected food commodities, modernise agriculture and stimulate growth through subsidies for food security and job creation.
He also revealed that the phase II of the programme is a transit from a direct input subsidy to a direct credit system linked to a structured market which will largely inure to the advantage of the farmer.
He therefore encouraged the farmers to collaborate with the Agric Extension officers to make the programme a huge success in the district.
In his presentation as the facilitator, Mr. Dennis Tabi Owusu highlighted on the challenges the PFJ 2 seeks to tackle which he listed as difficulty in accessing credit facilities; the issue of inadequate productivity and production; the instability of food prices; the insufficient promotion of commercial agriculture and the unavailability of food security and resilience.
Already, registration of farmers for the programme has started in earnest and most farmers are being enrolled into the programme.
Farmers at the end of the training were delighted with the programme and assured to actively partake in it for its success.