Planting for Food and Jobs: What Farmers Should Know

The question every farmer asks about PFJ

Ask any group of farmers in a district about PFJ and the first question is always the same: how do I get the inputs? Seed for the maize, fertiliser for the cassava, a bag of the good variety that does not get eaten by the fall armyworm. The answer is not as simple as turning up at the office with a cutlass and a plot. It depends on which module is running in your district, whether you are on the register, and what the current season's terms say.

This article sets out what the programme is, how its support has reached farmers, and what to check before you commit a season to it. It is written for farmers who keep poultry or are thinking about crops alongside the flock, and it does not describe the current terms in detail, because those change. Treat it as a map and confirm the route with your district office.

What the programme is and when it started

Planting for Food and Jobs was launched on 19 April 2017 at Goaso in the Ahafo Region, and it was led by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Its stated aim was to lift food production in Ghana and to create work, both on farms and in the businesses around them. It was built as a production programme, which means its main job is to get the right seed, fertiliser and advice to the right farmers at the right time.

Think of PFJ as a production programme rather than a cash grant fund. As far as the published accounts show, its support has come mainly as inputs, extension advice and mechanisation services delivered through the ministry and its partners, not as cash to start a business. Check the current terms before you assume otherwise. That difference matters when you come to the funding question, which our separate guide on agric grants and funding for Ghana farmers covers in its own right.

Because it is a government programme, it moves with the policy of each administration and with the budget each year. A module that is strong in one season can be scaled back in the next, and a new one can appear. That is the first reason to check the current position rather than relying on what a neighbour received two seasons ago.

The five modules, and which one touches your farm

The programme is organised into modules, and each one targets a different part of the farm economy. The names are easy to confuse, so the table below sets them out in plain words. The modules and their focus are as described in published accounts of the programme, and their current status in your district needs checking with MoFA.

For most of our readers, two modules matter most. The first is RFJ, because it names fowls among its livestock. The second is the greenhouse and mechanisation strands, which can help a poultry farm that wants a feed crop or a protected vegetable house on the same site. Ask your district office which modules are open in your area this year, and whether a poultry or feed crop component is part of the current phase.

Later phases and relaunches: check which version is running

Many farmers still speak of PFJ as if it were one fixed scheme. In practice it has been reshaped over time, with new phases, changes to the inputs on offer and changes to the crops in each district. Some farmers remember a season of subsidised inputs, others remember a season of credit, and a few remember a season where the inputs were late or short. All of those memories are real, and none of them tells you what this season will look like.

When you visit the district office, ask four questions. Which phase is running, and when did it start? Which crops and modules are included in the current phase? Are inputs subsidised, sold at a set price or provided on credit? And when is the deadline for registration and for collection? Write the answers down with the date and the name of the officer who gave them. That record will protect you if the terms change halfway through the season.

Do not assume that a phase that covered maize will cover your cassava or your cowpea. Coverage is set crop by crop and district by district, and the list changes. Our guides to growing maize, growing rice and growing sorghum and millet cover the agronomy of the main food crops, so you can judge an input offer against what the crop needs.

How inputs usually reach a farmer

The core of the programme is the input: improved seed, fertiliser and, in some phases, crop protection products. The route from the ministry to the farm usually runs through the district office. Farmers who are on the register are identified, their farm details are recorded, and inputs are allocated for the season against the crops and areas they have declared.

The exact model varies. Some phases have supplied inputs at a subsidised price. Others have made inputs available on credit, with the cost repaid from the harvest, often through a marketing or aggregation arrangement. Some farmers receive packs that are fixed in content, and others choose from a short list. Ask which model applies to you before you agree to anything, and ask for the figure and the repayment date in writing.

Be careful with the supply chain. Fertiliser and crop protection products that are sold outside the programme's channels may be counterfeit, expired or mislabelled, and a wrong product in the wrong dose can destroy a crop. Buy only from the sources the district office names, check the packaging for the registration details and the batch number, and keep the delivery note. If a product looks wrong, do not use it, and report it to the district office.

• Ask which input model applies: subsidised, fixed-price or credit.
• Get the price, the repayment date and any deductions in writing.
• Check the batch number and expiry date at delivery.
• Keep the delivery note, receipt and any signed form.

Registration: what to bring to the district office

Registration is a common point of failure, usually because a farmer arrives late or with incomplete papers. The office is busy in the weeks before planting, and the lists close as the allocation is made. Go early, go with the papers, and ask for the name of the officer who will handle your file.

Take your Ghana Card, which is the national identity card, along with the phone number you will use for messages from the programme. Bring the location of your farm, ideally with a GPS reading or a sketch with landmarks, and the size of each plot in acres or hectares, whichever the office uses. List the crops you plan to grow and the season you plan to plant. If you farm as part of a group, bring the group's name and the names of its officers.

Once you are registered, keep a copy of your details and a record of your registration number. Ask whether you need to renew each season, because the rules have differed between phases, and a farmer who misses a renewal can lose a place on the list without knowing it.

1. Visit the district MoFA office before the planting window opens.
2. Take your Ghana Card and a working phone number.
3. Bring the farm location, plot sizes and the crops you plan to grow.
4. Ask for the registration number and the date it was recorded.
5. Confirm the collection point, date and any payment details before you leave.

Extension advice and the mechanisation service centres

An input without advice is a gamble. The extension officer in your district is the person who tells you when to plant, how far apart to set the seed, when to apply the top dressing and which pests to watch for this season. A good seed planted a fortnight late often yields less than an average seed planted on time, and the extension officer is the one who knows the local calendar.

The mechanisation service centres, known as AMSECs, were set up to give farmers access to land preparation and other machine work without buying the equipment themselves. The modules also include hand-held implements. Ask whether a centre serves your area, what the booking process is and what it charges. Check the current charges with the centre directly, since they can change with fuel prices and the season.

Keep a simple diary of the advice you receive, with the date, the officer's name and what they told you. A written record is more useful than memory when a bad season leads to questions about what went wrong.

What the jobs part means on a farm

The programme's name has two halves, and the jobs half is easy to miss. PFJ was designed to create work along the value chain, not only on the farm gate. That includes labour for planting and harvest, the work of input dealers and transporters, and the trade in produce and storage. For a young farmer, the programme can be an entry point into agribusiness as well as a route into production.

Be honest with yourself about what the programme can do. It can give you access to inputs and advice. It cannot make the crop grow, and it cannot make the buyer pay. Those depend on your management, the weather and the market. A farmer who treats PFJ as a guaranteed income usually runs into trouble, while one who treats it as a cost-cutting route to the inputs they need tends to do well.

Where the programme links young people to work, it is worth asking whether the national youth employment bodies run a partner arrangement in your district. Ask the district office for the current partners and the terms, rather than relying on an old list.

Where poultry fits in, and where the manure goes

A poultry farmer has two clear ways to use the programme. The first is the livestock module. Rearing for Food and Jobs, known as RFJ, covers fowls and guinea fowls, along with cattle, goats, sheep and pigs. Ask the district livestock office whether RFJ is open for poultry this season, what the registration requires and whether any support applies to birds bought from a hatchery. Do not assume the answer; it changes by district and by phase.

The second route is through crops. A flock produces litter, and litter is a useful fertiliser once it is composted properly. Our guide to using poultry manure as fertiliser sets out the method, and it fits neatly alongside the crops that PFJ supports. Maize is the crop most often linked to the poultry side, because it is the main ingredient of the feed. Our article on buying and storing maize at harvest covers the feed side of that link.

Be careful not to mix the two budgets. If the programme's inputs go on the crop, keep the records separate from the flock's, so you can see which enterprise is earning. Our guide to poultry record keeping shows a simple way to keep the figures apart.

If you are planning to restock the flock for the season, the day-old chicks page shows the breeds we hatch, and the order section takes chick orders. We are not part of PFJ, so check the programme's terms with the district office for any support.

Reading the terms without guessing

Most farmers who get into trouble with a government input scheme do so because they signed for something they did not fully understand. The terms are usually short and written in plain language, but the important parts are often left out of the conversation. A list of questions helps, and so does asking for the answers in writing.

Read the form before you sign it, and take it home if the officer allows. If the cost is too high for your cash flow, compare it with a loan before you commit, and our guide to funding and loans for a poultry farm sets out the questions to ask a lender. Compare the figures with what you were told at the office. If something does not match, ask for the officer's name and the reference number before you proceed, and do not accept a verbal promise in place of a written term.

Safe use of fertiliser and crop protection products

The packs that come with a programme season contain real chemicals, and they carry real risks to the people who handle them and the animals that graze or drink nearby. The safety rules are not optional extras. They are part of getting the benefit of the input.

Use only the product on the label, at the rate on the label, for the crop and the pest named on it. PPRSD, the MoFA directorate that regulates crop protection products, can confirm whether a product is registered in Ghana. Read the waiting period before harvest, and do not sell or eat a crop before it has passed. Wear the protective gear the label asks for, keep children and animals away from the spray, and wash the sprayer and your hands after each use.

• Store products in their original containers, locked, away from feed and water.
• Never reuse an empty pesticide container for food, water or any other purpose.
• Take empty containers to the place the district office names for disposal.
• Keep poultry and livestock out of sprayed fields until the label allows.
• Report any product that smells, changes colour or looks wrong.

Keep the flock away from the fertiliser store as well. Ammonium-based products are harmful if eaten, and the birds will peck at anything that looks like grain or grit.

Mistakes that cost farmers their place on the list

A few errors come up again and again, and most of them are cheap to avoid. Registration that arrives late, a crop planted outside the season the programme covers, inputs sold on to someone else, and receipts that were never kept are the four that cost the most. Each one can leave a farmer with a debt, an empty field or a missing place on next season's list.

Planting outside the window is a quiet problem. A farmer who plants early because the rains came early can lose the seed to a dry spell, and a farmer who plants late can find the inputs have gone to someone who was ready on time. Keep the extension officer's calendar on the wall, and check it against the weather.

Selling the inputs on is the most damaging error, both for the farmer and for the programme. It breaks the terms of the allocation and can lead to the loss of the place on the register. If the allocation does not suit you, speak to the district office before the season starts, not after the bags have left the store.

Finally, do not let the programme replace your own records. A farmer who knows the cost per acre, the yield per plot and the price per bag can negotiate and plan. A farmer who relies on the programme's figures alone is at the mercy of whatever the season brings.

Checklist before you join for the season

Use this checklist before you register, and again before the inputs arrive. Each tick should have a date and a name beside it.

• Confirmed which phase and modules are running in my district this season.
• Confirmed which crops and areas the allocation covers.
• Registered with the district MoFA office, with my Ghana Card and a working phone number.
• Have the registration number and the officer's name written down.
• Got the price, repayment terms and collection date in writing.
• Checked the batch number and expiry date when the inputs arrive.
• Booked any mechanisation service early, and checked the current charges.
• Planned the planting date with the extension officer and the weather.
• Stored the products locked away from feed, water and children.
• Kept a separate record for the crop and for the flock.
• Checked whether RFJ is open for poultry in my district.

Review the season in the first month of harvest. Write down what worked, what did not and what you would ask for next time. That review is the best preparation for the next registration.

Questions farmers ask