Thousands benefit from Planting for Food and Jobs in Volta – Focal Person

A total of 13,784 farmers comprising 11,197 males and 2,587 females have benefited from government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative in the Volta Region since its inception in 2016.

The Region registered a total of 40,277 farmers who cultivated maize, rice, pepper and tomatoes as its priority crops on a land size of 58,445 hectares.

Mr Alfred Bedzrah, Regional Focal Person, PFJ, said aside the seeds and fertilizers given to farmers, they also benefitted from the services of extension officers. 

Mr Bedzrah said though the project has taken off, some farmers are yet to commit totally, because they had defaulted in previous programmes.

He said to eliminate the likelihood of similar occurrences; needed structures have been put in place to recover all debts to facilitate the sustenance of the project.

Mr Bedzrah said last year some of farmers complained of low quality seeds with others unhappy about late supply of seeds and said those concerns were being addressed this year.

He said some farmers were faced with the challenges in land preparation due to cost of tractor services and appealed to government to consider supporting farmers to prepare the land for coming farming seasons.

Mr Bedzra said this year; they envisioned a higher participation of farmers in the project in view of the awareness effort created in the 25 municipalities and districts.

Source: GNA