Ghanaian farmers advised to embrace e-agriculture

Mr Paul Amoh Korang, Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Agriculture, has stressed the need for Ghanaian farmers to adopt technological innovations in their activities to improve productivity.

He said the adoption of modern technologies and the use of electronic agricultural practices (e-agriculture) was the surest way to ensure increased yield production and improvement in farmers’ income for sustainable livelihood.

“In this era of climate change when extreme weather events have become the order of the day, e-agriculture can offer services like weather forecasts and disaster alerts, which can help farmers plan accordingly,” he told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in an interview in Kumasi.

Access to right information, including the choice of appropriate seeds and what technology to use in practice, had become the key to addressing many problems faced in the agricultural sector, Mr. Amoh Korang noted.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), millions of farm hectares across the world are facing the threat of climate change - a development compelling farmers to adopt climate-smart strategies to stay in business.

“Climate change is altering temperatures and rainfall patterns around the globe, putting stress on agricultural production systems.

"Smallholder farmers in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to climatic changes, as they have limited resources to cope with shocks and stresses,” the Metropolitan Director of Agriculture lamented.

Mr Amoh Korang said to respond to the challenge of climate change and to achieve food security and poverty alleviation, agriculture must undergo a transformation.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an integrated approach to managing landscapes- cropland, livestock, forests, and fisheries that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change.

Mr Amoh Korang hinted that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in view of the prevailing contemporary challenges, was on a mission to leverage technology in all sectors of the food production value chain.

E-agriculture, therefore, was being mainstreamed to ensure efficient delivery of services to farmers, actors along the agro value chain to boost productivity and output for greater profitability.

“Indeed, the government is excited about the new era of technology and some of the areas where technology is being applied.

These include extension services, development of a database for the biometric registration of farmers for effective targeting, soil mapping and disease control, amongst others - all at ensuring a consolidated food system in our country,” Mr. Amoh Korang told the GNA.