The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Bryan Acheampong, has assured that about 200,000 Ghanaian youth will be employed through the second phase of the government Planting for Food and Job programme (PFJ).

According to him, creating opportunities for the youth in agriculture is important for government.

Addressing the youth at an agriculture conference at the University of Ghana, he indicated that the government seeks to deepen the appreciation of agriculture among the youth, hence the decision to implement initiatives targeted at the youth under phase two of the Planting for Food and Jobs.

“We hope to achieve a strategic shift in delivering solutions to the problems in the sector and also to take a giant step for collaboration between the government and the youth to effectively harness the potential of agriculture. The youth is one of the biggest actors in the agriculture sector,” he said.

According to Dr. Acheampong, his Ministry and the Youth and Employment Agency (YEA) are collaborating to employ about 70,000 youth in the agric sector. 

“For its part, YEA has elaborated its intended support to the PFJ programme through capacity building, access to land and payment of stipends to beneficiaries at the early stages of the programme. Right from the conception of the programme, through the planning phase to the launch and now at the point of implementation, formal and informal conversations with actors along the agriculture value chain and other stakeholders have centered on productivity and job creation,” he said.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture also stated the fact that PFJ II is designed to consolidate and build on the successes of PFJ I.

As a first priority, he alluded that the Planting for Food and Jobs programme seeks to ensure that Ghana becomes food secure within the planned implementation period. 

Other related objectives, he concluded, are job creation, particularly for the teeming youth of the country, reducing food price inflation, building food systems resilience, and promoting import substitution and exports.