The Akoto factor: Planting for food and jobs has generated 20 times of what government has invested since 2017

The Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), an initiative under the Agricultural Sector under the leadership of Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto was launched at Goaso in the Ahafo region in 2017.

Under the program, farmers were to be supported with improved seeds, fertilizer, and other technical support services in order to improve the agricultural sector of the Country.

The PFJ started with the enrollment of 202,000 farmers across the country in the program despite a target of 200,000 farmers. As of 2021, 1.7 million farmers have been enrolled in the Programme.

The Programme has been a purely Government of Ghana-funded program. Since 2017, in a period of approximately five (5) years, the Government of Ghana has invested Ghanaian taxpayer’s money to the tune of GH₵2.6 billion in the Programme.

This GH₵2.6 billion investment into the PFJ program has yielded returns of about GH₵50 billion worth of Food, thus making it approximately 20 times or 2000% of returns from the investment.

According to the Maputo Declaration which came off during the second ordinary assembly of the African Union in July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique. When the African heads of state and government met, the member countries of the African Union (AU) concluded on the allocation of at least 10 percent of their respective annual national budget to the agricultural sector.

Despite the 10 percent Maputo Declaration, Ghana’s total spending allocated to the agricultural sector in 2017 constituted 0.71 percent of the entire government’s expenditure. In 2018 and 2019, total spendings on the sector were 0.79 percent and 0.86 percent respectively, and in 2020 and 2021, the total spendings on the Sector were 0.68 percent and 0.56 percent respectively. The above therefore indicates that the Agricultural sector spending measured against the total expenditure of the government revealed a declining trend from 0.71 percent in 2017 to about 0.56 percent in 2021.

Comparing the percentage of the total expenditure allocated to the Agricultural sector to that of the Educational sector, the Government of Ghana's spending on the Educational sector is about 13.7 percent of the Government’s expenditure. The 13.7 percent allocation to the Educational sector is within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) threshold of spending at least 15 percent of the government’s expenditure on education.

In furtherance, the budgetary allocation of Nigeria to their Agricultural sector was 1.70 percent and 2.0 percent in 2017 and 2018 respectively. It, after, fell to 1.56 percent and 1.34 percent in 2019 and 2020 respectively before recording a slight increase to 1.37 percent in 2021.

According to the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Ghana ranks fourth in the Agricultural sector at 6.67 out of 10 percent, compared to Rwanda ranking first at 7.24, Morocco ranking second at 6.96, and Mali ranking third at 6.82. Despite the respective budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector of the above countries and many other countries in Africa pecked at about 5 times more than Ghana’s budgetary allocation to the Agricultural sector, Ghana is still placed fourth on the African continent.

Moreover, even though, the allocation of the percentage of Ghana's government’s expenditure to the Agricultural sector is one of the lowest in the country, the sector has yet still been the backbone of the Country’s economy and led its growth. In the 2021 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, the sector recorded the highest growth with a rate of 8.4 percent and an 8.9 percent for the crop sub-sector. In addition, according to the GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2022, the Agricultural sector recorded the highest growth rate of 5.6 percent.

In furtherance, the 2020 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) with financial and technical support from the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has indicated that about 90 percent of people living in Ghana are food secured. The aforementioned corroborated by the general increase in production of food since the introduction of the policy under Dr. Akoto is a vivid indication that the PFJ policy has achieved 100 percent of its intended objectives.

Hhhmm, May God be praised always