Slow transition of PFJ to commercial farming hindered policy’s success – Alan

The founder and leader of the Movement for Change, Alan Kyerematen has expressed concern about the government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) policy.

Mr Kyerematen said the slow transition of the PFJ policy on smallholder farming to commercial farming hindered its success and intended purpose of ensuring food security.

Speaking in an interview, the Movement for Change leader said that no country ever achieved its food security objectives by just focusing on smallholder farming.

“When you want to reduce the cost of food generally, it has to be commercial farming. Small-scale farming is good and there is no doubt about that but there is no evidence of any country in the world that has been able to succeed with their efforts at food security by just having small-scale farming

“Planting for Food and Jobs’ module could have been improved and I feel that the initial emphasis on smallholder farming was understandable because you cannot just jump into commercial farming and there needed to have been a much faster transition to commercial farming. To focus only on smallholder farming, as I keep saying, will not work.”

He hinted that he will commission a policy called the AgricPacs project which he said will focus on collaborating with traditional leaders to make land acquisition easier to boost food production.

“The module is so beautiful because it says that the government only needs to provide incentives for mass participation in agriculture and the first thing is for the government to support what we call AgroPacs, and what that means is that the government will work with the traditional authorities to facilitate the acquisition of large tract of land.”