The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, is saying that despite the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs programme being a good policy, it failed because it was poorly implemented.
According to the lawmaker, the government, instead of providing the subsidies across board for farmers to benefit, it sought to dish out the support to persons who are affiliated to the ruling party.
This, he says, affected farmers who had the will to expand their produce but couldn’t get access to the farming inputs and funds that were provided.
Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, the legislator noted that if government had prioritised production to farmers without recourse to their political affiliation, there would have been a better accountability at the end of each farming season.
He disclosed that despite Parliament approving about GHC3billion to cushion the programme, the rollout was poorly and mischievously done, which subsequently affected its success.
“Even me, I had hope in it because we were hoping that for instance, if you come to my constituency in South Dayi, you could have 100 acres of block land farmed, either with maize and other vegetables so at the end of the farming season, you can actually determine how much we got from that project.
“But that was not how we implemented it. It got a stage if you were not politically aligned, they won’t give you. I think it was part of the problems why the programme failed,” he told Alfred Ocansey on TV3.
The lawmaker who is also a private legal practitioner, was contributing to the discussion on the cost of living crises where Ghana has to import some food items from other countries despite the implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme.
This has led to high cost of food items on the market, with a tuber of yam costing between GHC25 to GHC50.
He said if the policy had been properly implemented, Ghana wouldn’t be in the mess it is with food inflation being the highest the nation has recorded in the Fourth Republic.
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