Abu Sakara describes PFJ Market as a market distortion

Former Presidential Candidate for the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster has described the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s ongoing Planting for Food and Jobs(PFJ) Market as a market distortion.

The renown Agriculture and Rural Development (Development Agronomist) specialist with over 29years experience said the ministry can sustain the programme only for a period and that will mean will go back to its original form or even higher.

Mr Sakara was speaking on GhanaTonight on TV3 on Wednesday, November 16, monitored by GhanaPlus.com.

“If it is costing nothing, then it is means what you are doing is distorting the market and you can only distort the market for only a temporally period because at the end of the day whatever the real cause is you can only sustain it for a period but then you would have distorted the market and the market may go back to its original form or even higher”.

“So this is a market distortion to be frank,” Mr Sakara said.

Abu Sakara speaks on how to address hikes in food prices in Accra

He explained what the ministry needs to concern itself with is addressing the challenges which makes food stuffs from the farms and the rural areas unaffordable in the capitals, naming transportation as one of them.

“So what we need to do is to do the things backwards before we got here that will help us bridge that market failure. If we claim there is a market failure and that goods are stuck in the farm areas and cannot get to the market areas,” Mr Sakara advised.

He also recommended the use of tricycles to cart the food to the capitals since that is much cheaper source of transportation as compared to what the ministry is doing now.

Mr Sakara said by using the tricycles jobs will be created for young people who take up such jobs.

“These Chinese motorcades, if you have the youth provide motorcade taxi for bringing produce from farms to village centres where they can be kept aggregate and then moved. If they are moving them by these motorcades they will become much less expensive than trucks roaming around changing tires and gathering things. It will also provide jobs,” he added.

PFJ Market

Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) market is an initiative by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to mitigate the impact of the rising cost of food in the capitals, most, especially.

The programme begun on Friday, November 11, 2022 at the premises of the ministry and has since been extended to other part of the city to reach more people.

The programme is serving the public with non perishable foods such as yam, rice and also plantain which is currently in season.

The statement from the ministry dated November 10, 2022, said the initiative is part of measures to bring attention to the availability and affordability of food products in the country.

It is also to mitigate the impact of rising food prices on real incomes of civil and local government workers.

The programme is expected to continue until there are no more foods in farms across the country.

Source: GhanaPlus.com