The government has unveiled a new approach to tackle food security concerns through its flagship agricultural programme, Planting for Food and Jobs.

For the phase two of the programme, the government says shifting from smallholder farming to commercial farming will play a crucial role in addressing potential food security challenges.

As part of efforts to tackle these issues, farmers have been informed about the need to provide land for government support, which includes additional resources to enhance the programme.

This development follows President Akufo-Addo's launch of the second phase of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme on Monday, August 28, at the University for Development Studies in Tamale.

The primary focus of the programme is to build on the achievements of its initial phase, with a five-year comprehensive plan to modernize agriculture in Ghana.

This plan emphasizes the development of specific commodity value chains and active participation from the private sector.

Also read: Akufo-Addo launches phase II of Planting for Food and Jobs Programme

Speaking at the launch, President Akufo-Addo stated that the second phase, by design, “takes a holistic view and places greater emphasis on value chain approaches by focusing on strengthening linkages between actors along eleven selected agricultural commodity value chains broadly categorised into grains, roots and tuber, vegetables and poultry.”

He added that phase two of the programme also seeks to improve service delivery to maximise impact, and substitutes direct input subsidy with smart agricultural financial support in the form of comprehensive input credit, with provision for in-kind payment.

“Through the foods crops module, which focused on increasing access to fertilizers and improved seeds to increase crop yield. Secondly, the tree crops model, also known as the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) had the object of promoting export diversification.

“The model focused on the development of six selected tree crops, namely cashew, mango, coconut, rubber shear and oil power,” he said.

The president emphasised that the Planting for Food and Jobs programme's success has led to the establishment of the Tree Crop Development Authority, which secured a $100 million facility from the World Bank.

In light of this, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Yaw Frimpong Addo, underlined the significance of smallholder farmers in the country.

He noted that due to the growing population, relying solely on smallholder farming might eventually lead to severe food shortages.

Mr Addo said if the government resorts to smallholder farming, then “a time will come not too far that we will be hit with serious food shortages in this country.”

“The emphasis is now shifting a little bit from the smallholder farmer to commercial agriculture. What it means is that although we are not doing away with the smallholder farmers - we are going to become outgrowth to the big farmers, to the aggregator system,” the deputy Food and Agricultural Minister said.

He highlighted that as the government transitions from smallholder to commercial farming, the former input subsidy would transform into input credits.

The deputy Food and Agricultural Minister clarified that farmers need only their land, and all necessary inputs would be provided through the aggregator system. Once this shift is achieved, timely provision of inputs will be ensured naturally.

“The aggregators are well-equipped, they are linked to financial institutions, and we have all these things sorted out. What will happen is that there's going to be good harvest,” he said.