The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Water Research Institute (WRI) in collaboration with Vital Signals – a monitoring system for agriculture, nature and human well-being – are rolling out to monitor rainfall, temperature and humidity of the country to ensure food security.

The system which is expected to assist policy makers during planning will identify productive zones to boost agricultural production in the above countries.

The system is already in use in Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda to boost agricultural production in the above countries.

The system will offer viable data on the production areas and for specific crop yields in the country.

The system is expected to become a public document that would be used to assess the viability and conduciveness of variety of crops for certain climate and time. 

The usefulness of the system came to the fore at a stakeholders’ workshop convened by CSIR, WRI and Vital Signals in Accra last week.

Speaking at the workshop to introduce the system to the country, Mr Patrick Mutuo, the Africa Fields Director of Vital Signals, said the implementation of the system is to generate data for planners and farmers to allow better decision –making in support of development.

He said even though there are more mouths to feed people continue to degrade the environment and water bodies every minute.

He said in Africa alone there are about 9.6 billion mouths to be fed but degradation and other bad human practices continue to compound the problem over the years. 

He explained that the system is a capacity building programme which has been on the ground for the past two years. 

He said the system is doing well in Tanzania and its surrounding countries; and is offering farmers the opportunity to improve on their farm yields.

He said the system also affords the local farmers the opportunity to interact and know where some yields can be planted.

He admitted that the system can support specific agricultural, environmental policies in the country.

He added that the system is to offer a preliminary user interface and data visualizations across the country for improved agriculture.

On her part, Dr Rose Emma Mamaa Entsua-Mensah, Deputy Director-General of CSIR who doubled as the Chairperson for the workshop, said a lot of things are going on, in the environment which is affecting agricultural production.

She said some practices in the country are messing up water bodies and it was about time environmentally sustainable measures are introduced to arrest the situation.

‘Ghanaians are being irresponsible and very soon there will be no water to irrigate the crops in the country’’ she said.

She called for a forecast like Vital Signals to assist efforts to manage poverty alleviation programmes that have implemented over the years.

She said this can only be done by using better risk management technologies such the Vital Signal system.