Peasant Farmers Association: NPP's Planting for Food and Jobs Was Based on Fraud
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has strongly criticized the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) flagship agriculture policy, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), describing it as a policy that was built on fraud and mismanagement. In accordance with the Association, the program, which was launched in 2017 with a promise to revolutionize Ghana's agricultural sector, failed to live up to expectations but was instead utilized as a tool for enriching certain individuals at the expense of ordinary farmers.
Speaking to the media on behalf of the Association, Acting Executive Director Bismark Owusu Nortey was not only disappointed but livid at the way PFJ was implemented. In his view, the program, which was designed to provide farmers with subsidized inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, was characterized by procurement breaches and corruption. Contracts to provide vital farming inputs were given to companies with no or little experience in agriculture, leaving space for extensive exploitation and abuse.
To the PFAG, the distribution of fertilizers under the program was particularly problematic. A lot of the inputs intended for actual farmers never reached them. Instead, individuals who had nothing to do with farming were the ones who benefited, and there were widespread reports of fertilizers being smuggled out of the country's borders. In some cases, documents were forged to show that some districts had received their supplies when no such distribution had been made.
"The Planting for Food and Jobs was a carefully planned scam to siphon off state resources," Nortey said. "Farmers were supposed to be the ultimate beneficiaries, but they were sidestepped as politically connected individuals enriched themselves."
He further stated that the program's failures have had catastrophic implications, with most of the smallholder farmers lacking the desired support. This mismanagement, according to PFAG, contributed to Ghana's overall food security challenges and undermined efforts at enhancing agricultural productivity.
PFAG has called for a full-scale inquiry into the implementation of the PFJ program. The association is calling for a forensic audit to establish the extent of the alleged fraud and also to hold the perpetrators to account. They argue that Ghana cannot afford to allow such huge mismanagement of essential national programs to go unchecked, particularly in sectors as vital as agriculture.
The Association also issued a strong warning against a recurrence of such mistakes as the government rolls out new agricultural initiatives such as the "Feed Ghana" program. PFAG stressed that any subsequent programs must be shielded from partisan political interference and should be managed by professional agriculturalists in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
"Moving forward, we must ensure that agricultural programmes are designed and implemented by technical individuals and not politicians," Nortey stressed. "We have competent staff at all stages of the Ministry who can do the work if permitted to work free from political pressures."
The revelations by PFAG have sparked new public debate about the government's programs and their accountability and transparency, particularly those aimed at critical sectors like agriculture. Some stakeholders and farmers are now demanding that the government learn from the failures of PFJ and prioritize people's interests over political mileage.
In total, the Peasant Farmers Association's complaint paints an appalling picture of a program which, in spite of ambitious targets, was unavoidably tainted by fraud and mismanagement. While Ghana continues to pursue agricultural progress, it is extremely important that the PFJ lesson is learned well to ensure that future initiatives effectively benefit the farmer and have worthwhile impacts on national development.
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Peasant Farmers Association: NPP's Planting for Food and Jobs Was Based on Fraud
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