Agric staff trained on how to use phone to track extension services 

Selected agriculture staffs in the Northern Region have received training on how to profile farmers and track extension services using the web and mobile phones on the mfarms mobile application platform developed by Image ad.

The training which was held in SEND-GHANA’s Salaga Conference Hall, forms part of FOSTERING project activities meant to build staff capacities in the use of Information Communication Technology  (ICT) to improve on soya beans production within the Eastern Corridor of Ghana. 

A total of twenty four (24) Agriculture staff made up of Eight (8) Cooperative Development Officers, Four (4) Agriculture Extension Field Officers and Twelve (12) staff of District Agriculture Development Units (DADU) under Ministry of Food and Agriculture benefitted from the training.

Speaking on behalf of DADU AEAs, Ayensu Peters, an Agriculture  Extension Agent of DADU based in the East Gonja district admitted that, being an agriculture extension field officer for over ten (10) years, he “never knew providing agriculture extension services for farmers could be this easier.”

According to him, previously, all he knew was to “calculate farm size with tape measure, line and peg” but now it has changed. With an android mobile phone we can calculate farm size and get accurate results. It is so simple.

Through this training, extension services will be more effective with less time spent but more will be achieved. 

This module gives in-depth information about members of Family Based Farmer Cooperatives (FBFCs) who have been profiled in order to know their total numbers and assign agents to their various groups. To some extent this module allows extension officers to reach out to farmers and help them manage their farms.

In his remarks, Joshua Gumah, SEND-GHANA’s Agriculture and Climate Change Officer said, supervisors are able to assign tasks to their field officers through mobile phones and are able to do effective monitoring because the Global Positioning System (GPS) location and picture showing the progress of work needs to be captured. With the introduction of this technology, monitoring and evaluation will be more effective.

“This will help build confidence in the supervisors to know that every single task is being carried out,” he added.

The FOSTERING project seeks to also give up to date information to its farmers on weather and crop diseases through Short Message Service (SMS) campaign and voice messages.

Story by Patience Afi Seglah, Agriculture Extension Field Officer, SEND-GHANA