Count On Crops Hub, an agric-advocacy firm, has organised a training workshop for agriculture extension officers in the Suhum Municipality in the Eastern Region.
The workshop, which hosted 32 participants, aimed to equip the Extension Officers with new and innovative ways of data gathering as well as expose them to new data applications used in collecting agricultural-related information on the field, with a special focus on small-scale farmers they work with.
Dubbed the “Extension Alert Project”, the officers were also introduced to climate change and its consequences on a sector that is expected to turn around Ghana’s economic fortunes.
This is a part of attempts to employ technology to teach farmers and collect data through the use of various electronic agricultural platforms, which will assist the farmers to gain a deeper understanding of contemporary agricultural methods for business growth.
They were taken through the various types of data collection, sampling techniques, factors to consider in sampling design, data collection methods, and steps in data management. They were also equipped with the use of the Open Data Kit (ODK) collection latest model of application international organizations use to gather data.
A Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Expert with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Rich Kofi Kofituo who facilitated the workshop encouraged participants to use the knowledge acquired to improve their data gathering techniques for the development of other agricultural activities in the various districts.
A participant, Stephen Wonder Zigah expressed his delight about the workshop saying “the knowledge that I gathered from this workshop will help to build the farmers that I train and myself. It has been very impactful to me as an extension officer, one of the things I need to keep me going is to be abreast with current agricultural trends and today’s training has been able to give me that training”.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Count On Crops Hub, Enyonam Manye stated that the reason for embarking on this nationwide capacity-building training for agriculture extension officers is to equip them with the latest happenings in the agricultural sector. “That way, they can also transfer knowledge acquired to farmers,” she said.
She appealed to corporate and international organisations to support this impactful initiative for the total development of agriculture.
Besides, the Regional Municipal Director of Agriculture, Samuel Kofi Dzisah commended the organisers, Count On Crops Hub and its partners, Maphlix Trust Ghana Limited and Asinyo.com for the laudable initiative.