The 2023 national best farmer has pledged her commitment to support phase two of the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme, which is aimed at promoting food security and immediate availability of selected food crops on the market
Akortia, 57 from Agona West Municipality in the Central Region was over the weekend adjudged the national best farmer 2023 at this year’s Farmers’ Day celebration at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa in the Western Region.
She took home a cash prize of GHC1 million sponsored by the Agriculture Development Bank.
Akortia currently employs about 277 workers and she has been farming for over 30 years. She is married with four children and owns a number of farms in the Central Region.
Appearing on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (4 December), Akotia said: “I plan to support the government’s PFJ phase two in areas like seed production, post-harvest handling, and women in piggery production.”
“Especially processed fish and meat, coconut and honey, and you know I have a number of beehives, so I will champion the course on technical know-how about how to handle these things,” Akortia added.
Listen to Charity Akortia in the attached audio clip below:
About PFJ
Planting for Food and Jobs is a flagship agricultural campaign of the Government of Ghana with five implementation modules. Phase two of the programme was recently launched by President Akufo-Addo in Tamale.
In the five-year plan of PFJ 2.0, Ghana is expected to move its self-sufficiency from 5% to 7% by the end of 2023, and to 13% in 2024, and progressively attain full self-sufficiency of 110.6% by 2028. Specific steps have been taken in this regard.
In this connection, government announced that, in the immediate term (October to December 2023), MoFA is supplying 4.5-million-day-old chicks, vaccines, and starter-pack feed to anchor farmers and their outgrowers.
This intervention will result in the production of an additional 13,200 MT of poultry meat by the end of this year, which will increase Ghana’s self-sufficiency to 7%.
In 2024, the Ministry is expected to ramp the poultry sector up with support to 18 million day-old chicks, vaccines, and starter-pack feed, which will lead to the production of 42,600 MT of meat and increase our self-sufficiency to 13%. This trajectory will continue until we reach full self-sufficiency.
Plans are also advanced to revive the poultry industry this year through the rehabilitation of 300 outgrown poultry farms across the country over the next 12 months. Each of these farms can be scaled to produce 200,000 birds within each poultry cycle of 4 months.
Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra
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