No new jobs ‘under planting for food and job’- Inusah Fuseini

Business News of Monday, 5 February 2018

Source: citifmonline.com

2018-02-05

Inusah Fuseini DkdldMember of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini

The National Democratic Congress ]NDC] Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, has urged Ghanaians to disregard claims by the Ministry of Agriculture that over 700,000 jobs have been created under the government’s planting for food and jobs programme.

According to him, extending services to already existing farmers cannot be considered as creating new jobs.

His comments follows the Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Afriyie Akoto’s announcement last week that 745,000 jobs had been created under the first phase of the programme with the caveat that the jobs were “unofficial jobs.”

The Minister explained to the media that, the jobs were created in rural areas, and were essentially not taxable, and did not contribute to pension funds following the earlier skepticism that met the announced figure.

The figures were based on the number of additional inputs as well as improved seeds and fertilizers supplied to participating farmers in 2017.

Speaking on the Big Issue, Inusah Fuseini said he had not seen any strategic plan for the implantation yet, but the Minister is out there claiming provision of jobs that do not exist.

“As I have said, I have not seen any strategic blueprint for the planting for food and jobs, they went and assisted farmers who are already in the field, they didn’t create new farmers, all they did was extend facility to them, is that creation of new jobs?, ”he said.

According to him, as long as the government cannot provide concrete evidence of people that have benefited from the planting for food and jobs project, there is still no solution to unemployment which is causing the youth to result to political vigilantism.

“The minister spoke about planting for food and jobs, can he give us evidence of people who were otherwise doing political vigilantism going to the farm?” he said.

Beyond Inusah Fuseini’s concerns, the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), also opined that government’s estimate of 745,000 jobs provided under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme might be exaggerated.

The Union’s General Secretary, Edward Kareweh, contended that the figure provided by the government would have to be scrutinized.

Lack of understanding

Despite the contentions with the figures from government, a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sagre Bambangi, said those doubting the number of jobs created by the programme needed to acquaint themselves with the situation on the ground.

According to him, the skeptics “have not been able to take time to appreciate the process involved in agricultural production.”

“In the course of agricultural production, we have input delivery, and in the course of the input delivery, a lot of stakeholders are involved and all these create jobs. For instance, if you are going to procure seeds and fertilizer, you are creating jobs for people who will haul the seeds and fertilizer. If you are going to haul the seeds and fertilizer, you are creating jobs for transport owners and haulers,” he explained.

The ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, which was launched in 2017, is expected to modernize agriculture, improve production, achieve food security and make Ghana more self-sufficient, whilst creating jobs for the youth.

The initiative is expected to increase the production of maize by 30%, rice by 49%, soybean by 25% and sorghum by 28% for current production levels.

The first phase of the policy is expected to cost the government about GHc 560 million.

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