Solomon Gyan Ansah, delivering his address during the launch of the Ghana Home Gardening Initiative
The government of Ghana seeks to boost food security through enhanced support for local farmers, an official said on Friday.
Solomon Gyan Ansah, Director for Crop Services at the Ministry for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), disclosed this during the launch of the Ghana Home Gardening Initiative, aimed at boosting household food security in the country.
Gyan Ansah said the government would use the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs flagship programme to catalyze growth in food production to ensure that the country can effectively deal with food shortage and food price volatility.
“Currently, MoFA and its stakeholders have launched a five-year strategic plan known as Planting for Food and Jobs Phase Two (PFJ 2.0) from 2023 to 2028 to support food production,” he stated.
The government first introduced the PFJ programme in 2017, running until 2022.
He said the programme would shift from direct food subsidy to a smart agriculture input credit system, linked to structured market arrangements with an integrated and comprehensive approach, linking access to improved seed and fertilizers to mechanization, extension services, and output marketing systems.
The programme seeks to ensure increased production of local staples, including rice, maize, sorghum, soya beans, cassava, yam, plantain, tomato, pepper, and onions, added the official.
Some Ghanaian officials admiring crops exhibited during the launch of the Home Gardening Initiative
Under the programme, he said farmers would receive the necessary farm inputs and extension services through aggregated credits and pay back the cost of the inputs in kind through farm produce at the end of the production season.
Gyan Ansah stressed that under PFJ 2.0, “Farmers do not have to worry about raising money to buy farm inputs because the programme will provide it for them at the beginning of the crop season.”
“So long as the Ghanaian population keeps increasing over the years, there is the continuous need to increase food production and buffer stocks to meet the growing demands and efficiently cope with volatilities in food production and pricing,” added the official.
Under the programme, he said particular attention would be on home gardening, urging the population to convert their compounds into home gardens where they grow their own vegetables and other crops that could be grown at home for improved and quality nutrition.
The home gardening initiative is a public-private sector initiative by the agriculture ministry and some farmer-based organizations to encourage Ghanaians to practice growing some staples in their own backyards at home to ensure enhanced food security.