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Agric Ministry rakes in GH¢1.2bn from ‘planting for food and jobs’ in 2017

Agric Ministry rakes in GH¢1.2bn from ‘planting for food and jobs’ in 2017

Government’s flagship programme ‘planting for food and jobs’ yielded harvest worth GH¢1.2 billion last year, according to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

The government allocated about GH¢400 million for the program in the 2017 budget aimed at addressing the declining growth of Ghana’s agricultural sector.

Over 200 thousand farmers registered under the pilot phase of the planting for food and jobs initiative.  Crops targeted under the initiative include maize, sorghum, soybeans, rice and some vegetables such as Tomato, Onion, Chili pepper.

According to the Deputy Minister of Agric, George Oduro, over 345,000 hectares were cultivated and an estimated 296,000 metric tons of fertilizer was also used compared to the 134,00 metric tons used in 2016 translating into high yields.

“We got 485 thousand metric tons of maize, 179,000 metric tons of rice and 19,000 metric tons of vegetables with a street value of GH¢1.2 billion,” he said.

“Seeing as government invested some GH¢400 million into the planting for food and jobs policy, reaping GH¢1.2 billion that was a good achievement” he added.

For this year, the deputy minister indicated that the program will target about 500,000 farmers.

The ‘planting for food and jobs’ initiative is a five-year-long policy which is geared towards increasing food production to ensure food security for the country as well as reduce food import bills to the barest minimum.

 

Original Story on: MyJoyOnline
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