AKILIMO, a digital service, which provides tailored agronomic advice to cassava growers, has launched its Ghana Association to enhance.
Its presence would enhance agricultural productivity, knowledge dissemination, and policy advocacy to drive sustainable development and growth in the country’s agricultural sector.
The Association envisions to create a digitally empowered and resilient agricultural sector, where AKILIMO tools are widely adopted, enabling farmers and value chain actors to achieve optimal productivity and improved livelihoods.
At the launch of the association in Kumasi, Dr Thompson Ogunsanmi, a Scaling Specialist, and AKILIMO Coordinator for Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania, said the concepts continued to benefit Ghanaian cassava farmers.
They had been introduced to best planting practices and weed control, tailored fertilizer recommendations, optimal intercropping practices, scheduled planting and harvest.
Again, the concepts since its introduction in 2023 in Ghana, have collaborated with stakeholders to translate AKILIMO materials from English into “Ewe” and “Twi” languages.
Dr Ogunsanmi indicated that the Association was expected to set up and operate a framework to maintain all AKILIMO interfaces and training materials for continuous access for farmers and extension agents, while keeping the contents relevant and up to date.
It would also have the objective to grow the AKILIMO user base and foster partnerships and interactions among value chain players to solve challenges and bottlenecks.
The association would be responsible for designing and implementing cost-effective strategies for AKILIMO training and support for farmers and farmer organisations.
The Scaling Specialist said the Association would take up the use of AKILIMO application programming interface for integration with other partners’ platforms and work with research partners to expand AKILIMO to other crops.
The Association would also monitor uptake of the AKILIMO tools and recommendations as well as implement feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement.
The launch brought together stakeholders, including processing companies, researchers, officers from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), agricultural extension agents and agro-based enterprises.
Interim executives included Mr Daniel Dzorkpe Gamenyah, Mr Richard Darko, Nuhu Mborija and two other members to represent as Chairman, Secretary and Organizer respectively.
By Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA