Planting for Food and Jobs has failed monumentally – NDC

The Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) policy has been an epic failure, hence the high cost of goods and food in the country, Communication Team Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwaku Boateng has said.

Planting for Food and Jobs is a flagship agricultural Campaign of the Government, with five (5) implementation modules. The first module PFJ (Crops) aims to promote food security and immediate availability of selected food crops on the market and also provide jobs.

According to him, food prices have risen because of the “super incompetence of the ruling gov’t.”

“Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) have failed monumentally and that is why when you go to town you realize food prices are soaring astronomically,” he told Happy98.9FM’s Don Kwabena Prah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show.

Citing some examples of the cost of everyday food items in the country, he revealed the price of a bread loaf worth GH₵12.00 shot to GH₵15.00 in a matter of days. “The same size of bread was sold for GH₵15.00 and I know some Ghanaians buy bread at higher prices than this. The prices of goods and services in Ghana have gone up really high and it is sad.”

Kwaku Boateng added a cup of porridge which sold for 50pesewas now sells at GH₵1.50pesewas as a result of the increase in the cost of millet bag. “A bag of millet which sold for GH₵450.00 now sells at GH₵720.00 and that’s high and that is the state of the economy we live in now.”

According to information from the Ghana Statistical Service, rising cost of food prices pushed Ghana’s inflation rate in the month of March 2022 to 19.4%, the highest since August 2009.

The Ghana Statistical Service indicated that foodstuffs such as Oil and Fats (28.2%), Water (27.1%), Cereal Products (25.0%), Vegetables (23.8%), Fish and Other Seafood (23.7%), Fruits and Nuts (22.1%), Soft Drinks (20.5%), Live Animals, and Meat (20.2%) recorded inflation rate, higher than the national average.

According to the figures, food inflation recorded a rate of 22.4% in March 2022, compared to 17.4% in February 2022.

Non-food inflation however recorded a rate of 17.0% in March 2021, from 14.5% recorded in February 2022.

Transport including fuel recorded the highest inflation rate of 27.6%, followed by Housing with an inflation rate of 21.4%.

Month-on-month inflation between February 2022 and March 2022 was 4.0%. However, on a month-on-month basis, food inflation exceeded non-food inflation by 0.8 percentage points.

In addition, local inflation shot up to 20% in March 2022, as against 17.3% for imported goods or inflation.

The rising inflation means interest rates will continue to surge, whilst cost of credit will also go up.

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