The Minister for Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto says the government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs programme is contributing significantly to the transformation agenda of the Akufo-Addo led administration.

According to him, the strategic intervention of the flagship programme has come to secure Ghana’s food system which like food systems across the world is facing attacks from climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and frequent outbreaks of animal diseases.

Speaking in Cape Coast to mark this year’s National Farmers’ Day, he stated that despite these negative forces threatening the national food system, the Planting for Food and Jobs programme has come to build and strengthen it.

“Globally, the prescribed solution for managing the impact these counterproductive forces have on our food security is to build and strengthen existing food systems.

“Luckily, we in Ghana under the leadership of your Excellency the President are firmly on the path to building a robust, resilient and equitable system that can withstand shocks.

“The evidence of this can be found in government’s flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs which was launched by your excellency in 2017,” he said.

He revealed that all five modules under the Planting for Food and Jobs programme i.e. the food crops module, Rearing for Food and Jobs, the greenhouse technology module and the farm mechanization module are contributing significantly to the transformation agenda of the government.

“There is clear evidence that these strategic interventions have a great potential to do more in the coming years,” he said.

He added that “Right across these modules is an underlying strategy to promote agribusinesses along the value chain to ensure maximum returns to job creation for the economy of Ghana. This is in the spirit of Ghana Beyond Aid.”