Akufo-Addo lied, Ghana still imports tomatoes

General news for Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Source: rainbownradioonline.com

01/06/2021

South Builsa MP Dr Clement Apaak described President Akufo-Addo as a liar after he said in the latest State of the Nation address that Ghana is no longer importing food due to the plantations for food and employment.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo delivering his latest SONA today, Tuesday January 5, 2021, said the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) program had justified his government since food is plentiful in Ghana.

The president said the policy has been successful and has made Ghana a food exporter.

“Thanks to the Plant for Food and Jobs program, food is plentiful in our country,” he said.

Plant for Food and Jobs is a flagship agricultural campaign of the government, with five implementation modules.

The first module of the PFJ – Cultures – focuses on the promotion of food security and the immediate availability of certain food crops on the market and on job creation.

The module was officially launched by President Akufo-Addo in Goaso on April 19, 2017 in the Brong Ahafo region.

The five modules are food crops, plantation for export and rural development (PRDE), greenhouse technology villages (3 villages), livestock for food and employment (RFJ) and agricultural mechanization (AMSEC).

Referring to the government’s success, the president said, “We have seen the dramatic turnaround in our agricultural fortunes, due to progressive policies that have improved the standard of living of the country’s farmers. The perfectly executed policy of planting for food and employment laid the foundations for the agricultural transformation of our country. We can say that our country is now a net food exporter and we no longer need to import staple foods like plantains and tomatoes.

According to him, it is not true that Ghana imports more tomatoes as the president claims.

He said if the president had consulted widely with his appointees in the Upper East region, he would not have made the statements he made to parliament.

He also asked if the president knew there was a shortage of onions in the country.

In its response to SONA, the lawmaker said, “My friends, outgoing president SELECT said PFJ was so successful that we are no longer importing food products like tomatoes! Really? As usual, Mr. Akufo-Addo is either misled or deceptive.

If the outgoing regional minister of Akufo-Addo of the Haut-Est region and / or his MCE for Chana-Paga or even the customer manager in charge of the Ghana-Burkina Faso border had been consulted, they would have told him that daily 50 trucks cross Burkina to bring tomatoes to Ghana to sell.

Oooh while you’re at it, does Mr. Akufo-Addo know about the onion shortage in Ghana? Well I’m sure Dr Bawumia hasn’t been to the MalaMata market for a long time.