ICT advisor for the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) project, Dr. Nana Kofi Annan is advocating mass digital literacy for enhanced e-agriculture in Ghana.

He believes adequate knowledge in digital tools is crucial in the long term utilization of the digital platforms.

He was speaking at a workshop in Kumasi.

Ghana’s agriculture sector has played a major role in sustainable economic growth.

It has served as a major boost to livelihood empowerment, food security and Gross Domestic Product.

However, poor agricultural practices, hindered dissemination of relevant knowledge, pest infestation and others have hampered the gains.

Enhancing digital tool utilization in diverse areas of the Agriculture sector has been identified as key.

Dr. Kofi Annan says building capacity, especially for rural farmers, will be crucial.

“There’s the need to look at the mass digital literacy for the people in the rural communities to build their digital capacities so that they’ll be able to appreciate and use these devices we have in the technological space,” he said.

A project dubbed, enhancing e-agriculture structures and mechanisms for extension, surveillance and early warnings is leveraging the successes achieved in the ICT use in Ghana to boost agricultural productivity.

The project seeks to among others develop the National E-Agriculture Policy and Strategy and harmonized E-Agriculture systems.

Chair for Research and Policy at Internet Society, Dr. Kester Quist-Aphetsi emphasized the importance of early warning systems to fight food security.

He also wants a connection between the early warning systems and health systems.

“For the floods that are happening, we’re supposed to know the amount of rain using outer space technology. We can use them to inform farmers on how they can better prepare.

“In case people are reporting on the effect they have by eating a particular food, then the Health Ministry can extract and use the information,” he explained.

The project is spearheaded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with support from MoFA and NADMO to integrate agriculture and early warning systems.

It follows the successful implementation of the Agronomic Early Warning System in 2019.

This was piloted in selected districts in Volta and Bono regions.

“The successful implementation of this pilot program provided the motivational background of this Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) to upscale the pilot areas to nine regions focusing on the enhancement of agriculture and rural development through improved information and communication processes,” FAO representative to Ghana, Ndiaga Gueye said.

Stakeholders have therefore been meeting in Kumasi to familiarize themselves with the project goals and objectives, and build partnership to ensure successful implementation.