Cell Phones Have Improved Farmers’ Livelihood – ICT Expert

Using cell phone to access farm inputs and markets for their produce has improved the livelihood of smallholder farmers in Ghana, according to an ICT expert.

Mr Robert Owusu said this against the background of mixed reactions over the Federal Government’s decision to distribute 10 million mobile phones to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

The policy, expected to be implemented this year, is part of the present administration’s ongoing Agricultural Transformation Agenda, which seeks to reposition the agruiculture sector from subsistence practice to become a commercially viable sector.

As part of the ATA, the Federal Government has already implemented an electronic system of fertiliser distribution called the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme otherwise called ‘e-wallet”.

Owusu told newsmen in Abuja on Monday that prior to the introduction of ICT-driven means of agricultural information in Ghana, many farmers had no access to markets for their produce.

“I know that most Ghanaian farmers are smallholder farmers and some of the challenges are that they do not know where to sell their produce.

“The traders too do not know where to buy and wholesalers cannot predict their supplies because sometimes you put up a factory but the supplies are not forthcoming.’’

Owusu, who is also the Managing Director of Esoko, the mobile phone information system serving rural farmers, said that lack of access to market information made it difficult for government to plan for food security.