{"id":326980,"date":"2025-04-14T14:55:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T14:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:55:06","slug":"lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"130\" data-end=\"356\">Eric Opoku, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, has attributed the failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme \u2014 introduced by the previous administration \u2014 to poor leadership and weak implementation structures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"358\" data-end=\"568\">The PFJ initiative was launched in 2017 under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, with the goal of boosting the production of selected food crops and promoting agriculture as a profitable business venture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"570\" data-end=\"748\">However, according to the Minister, both Phase I and Phase II of the programme yielded limited results and failed to achieve the intended goal of ensuring national food security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"750\" data-end=\"1011\">On Saturday, April 12, 2025, President John Dramani Mahama launched the Feed Ghana Programme, a new flagship initiative with similar goals to PFJ but with renewed strategies to drive food production, reduce imports, and ensure long-term food sufficiency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1013\" data-end=\"1188\">Speaking on the <em data-start=\"1029\" data-end=\"1050\">Citi Breakfast Show<\/em> on Monday, April 14, 2025, Mr. Opoku emphasized that the previous programme lacked the necessary leadership to drive meaningful outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know that when you have an agenda and you come to your strategies, one of your responsibility is to rally people behind the strategy to make it happen at all course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce I have my agenda and I have made my strategies clear, it is my responsibility to mobilise the people around to ensure that it happens. If leadership decides not to be part of the implementation then certainly you wont get the result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if you start giving out the right instruction and you monitor every stage of the implementation, the status quo will change. Otherwise, you end up sacking everybody and bringing in new people. But it is all about leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you come to the ministry, you will see for yourself. Some of the people are willing to work but the leadership must be there to ensure that we get the best out of them,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eric Opoku, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, has attributed the failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme \u2014 introduced by the previous administration \u2014 to poor leadership and weak implementation structures. The PFJ initiative was launched in 2017 under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, with the goal of boosting the production of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eric Opoku, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, has attributed the failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme \u2014 introduced by the previous administration \u2014 to poor leadership and weak implementation structures. The PFJ initiative was launched in 2017 under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, with the goal of boosting the production of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-14T14:55:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eric-Opoku-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"840\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"412\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19f97c9b96bb4eec1ec652714cfea7e6\"},\"headline\":\"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-14T14:55:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":316,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Eric-Opoku-1.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Eric-Opoku-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-14T14:55:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19f97c9b96bb4eec1ec652714cfea7e6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Eric-Opoku-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/Eric-Opoku-1.png\",\"width\":840,\"height\":412},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/14\\\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19f97c9b96bb4eec1ec652714cfea7e6\",\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ghana News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2025\\\/author\\\/ghanamma\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku - Ghanamma.com","og_description":"Eric Opoku, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, has attributed the failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme \u2014 introduced by the previous administration \u2014 to poor leadership and weak implementation structures. The PFJ initiative was launched in 2017 under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, with the goal of boosting the production of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/","og_site_name":"Ghanamma.com","article_published_time":"2025-04-14T14:55:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":840,"height":412,"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eric-Opoku-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Ghana News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ghana News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/"},"author":{"name":"Ghana News","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/#\/schema\/person\/19f97c9b96bb4eec1ec652714cfea7e6"},"headline":"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku","datePublished":"2025-04-14T14:55:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/"},"wordCount":316,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eric-Opoku-1.png","articleSection":["Local News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/","name":"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eric-Opoku-1.png","datePublished":"2025-04-14T14:55:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/#\/schema\/person\/19f97c9b96bb4eec1ec652714cfea7e6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eric-Opoku-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Eric-Opoku-1.png","width":840,"height":412},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/04\/14\/lack-of-leadership-caused-failure-of-planting-for-food-and-jobs-eric-opoku\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lack of leadership caused failure of Planting for Food and Jobs \u2013 Eric Opoku"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/#\/schema\/person\/19f97c9b96bb4eec1ec652714cfea7e6","name":"Ghana News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ghana News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/author\/ghanamma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}