The Minister for Foods and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Bryan Acheampong says the registration of farmers for the Planting for Foods and Jobs Phase II (PFJ 2.0) will commence today, Tuesday, March 12.

He said the farmer registration for PFJ 2.0 would be conducted across all 16 regions and 261 districts in Ghana, adding that to facilitate this process, a mobile and web application platform, the Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness Platform (GhAAP), had been developed.

Dr Acheampong said additionally, Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) and other technical officers had been trained on how to use the platform and provided with tablets for data capturing.

“To participate in the PFJ 2.0 programme, farmers or producers must meet specific requirements, including having access to land or a farm, and capturing their profile at the district level.”

The Minister said farmers would need to provide farm or land coordinates, be Ghanaian citizen with a valid Ghana card, engage in farming on prioritised commodity crops, and be a legally registered company or institution,

At a press briefing by the MoFA held in Accra, Dr Acheampong said the PFJ 2.0 programme was a carefully thought-through initiative designed to build on the successes of the initial programme while addressing its limitations.

“While the first phase achieved notable successes, it also faced implementation challenges that necessitated a review.

“To address these challenges and harness the potential of the food and agricultural sector, we engaged in consultative meetings with key stakeholders and focused on new pathways to overcome the limitations of the initial programme,” he added.

He said the PFJ 2.0 programme took a holistic view of the value chain approach by strengthening linkages among actors along selected agricultural commodity value chains and improving service delivery to maximise impact.

Dr Acheampong said a significant difference between PFJ 2.0 and the initial programme was the substitution of direct input subsidy with a smart agricultural financial support system in the form of a zero-interest input credit system, where payment would be in-kind.

He said the PFJ 2.0 was anchored on Inputs Credit System, Storage and Distribution Infrastructure, Commodity Trading, Digitized Platform and Line of Sight Management and Coordination.

The minister urged all interested farmers and producers to contact their local Agricultural Extension Agents at the District Department of Agriculture to register for the PFJ 2.0 programme.

Dr Acheampong said MoFA stood ready to support every secondary school in Ghana willing to engage in school farming, especially those in the southern and the middle belts.

“When we have done that, you will realise that the schools are able to now feed on the grains, legumes and cereals they have cropped, thereby leaving what general farmers have planted for the market and the rest of the population, reducing pressure and stabilising prices,” he stressed.