The Upper West Regional Director for the government’s flagship Planting for Foods and Jobs (PFJ), Mr Fredrick Doma Vuozie has revealed that a total of 62,902 female farmers are currently benefitting from the programme in the region.
Mr Vuozie stated that, the number represents 20 percent of the total number of beneficiary farmers in the 2020 farming season.
“The programme which was implemented in 2017 with 29,349 beneficiary farmers is currently benefitting 314,513 farmers in the region as at October this year,” he noted.
Mr Vuozie noted that farmers within the northern Ghana, including the Upper West Region have been supported with different varieties of arable crops for cultivation. The crops include maize, soya beans, rice, sorghum, cowpea, and groundnuts as well as vegetables.
He added that beneficiary farmers have been supported with 4,615,027 bags of subsidized NPK and Urea inorganic fertilizers and other farm inputs to improve production.
Emphasizing the benefits of the PFJ programme, Mr Vuozie noted that the Upper West Region is privileged to have more farmers benefiting from the programme countrywide.
The government’s flagship PFJ programme is projected to increase maize production between 521,406.80 and 625,688.16 metric tonnes from the 2020 planting season with a projected yield of about 2.5 to 3.0 metric tonnes per hectare.
There have been many calls for youth and women’s participation in agriculture and these figures prove a good headway.
The programme which is currently supporting women in contributing to the betterment of their family lives is among some of the key government pro-poor initiatives in the agricultural sector.
They include the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) and the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programmes.