Former Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) director, Charles Nyaaba, has alleged that local farmers were bypassed in recent procurement regarding government’s school feeding programme.
“We were very excited when we got the directive from the president that the school feeding programme is going to buy rice and maize from the local farmers.
“We were all prepared, waiting for them to arrive. The contractors they engaged to purchase produce from farmers decided to import it,” he told JoyNews.
“They gave a contract to people; instead of buying from the farmers, they imported the rice, leaving the farmers,” he added.
Nyaaba also criticized the lack of transparency in the process.
“We keep engaging the National Food Buffer Stock Company to publish the lists of the people they engaged to mobilise this produce, and they are failing to do that.
And there is no evidence from any farmer that the National Food Buffer Stock came to buy from them,” he said.
Farmers, he claims, were left unserved despite being ready to supply rice and maize for the programme.
