channel247online
Eric Opoku, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, has attributed the failure of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme — introduced by the previous administration — to poor leadership and weak implementation structures.
The PFJ initiative was launched in 2017 under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration, with the goal of boosting the production of selected food crops and promoting agriculture as a profitable business venture.
However, according to the Minister, both Phase I and Phase II of the programme yielded limited results and failed to achieve the intended goal of ensuring national food security.
On Saturday, April 12, 2025, President John Dramani Mahama launched the Feed Ghana Programme, a new flagship initiative with similar goals to PFJ but with renewed strategies to drive food production, reduce imports, and ensure long-term food sufficiency.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, April 14, 2025, Mr. Opoku emphasized that the previous programme lacked the necessary leadership to drive meaningful outcomes.
“You know that when you have an agenda and you come to your strategies, one of your responsibility is to rally people behind the strategy to make it happen at all course.
“Once I have my agenda and I have made my strategies clear, it is my responsibility to mobilise the people around to ensure that it happens. If leadership decides not to be part of the implementation then certainly you wont get the result.
“But if you start giving out the right instruction and you monitor every stage of the implementation, the status quo will change. Otherwise, you end up sacking everybody and bringing in new people. But it is all about leadership.
“When you come to the ministry, you will see for yourself. Some of the people are willing to work but the leadership must be there to ensure that we get the best out of them,” he stated.
source: citinewsroom.com
Yaw Boagyan
Rafiq Adam
