Can you share any examples, cases or stories of experiences of developing a national e-Agriculture strategy, policy or plans? What went well and what did not work? What are the lessons which can be learned?
E-agriculture Strategy, as a guide to help align regional and country-level ICT in Agriculture is very laudable. This strategy is essential to increase technology adoption and also focus appropriate resource support to the agricultural sector.
In Ghana, I am aware of component e-agricultural strategies developed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture through donor-support. A case in point is the e-extension platform developed with support from GIZ funded Market Oriented Agricultural Programme (MOAP) and another with financing from the World-Bank West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP). In all these, the level of participation of relevant actors has been limited to the respective project design teams, consultants, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the funding agency. There has been very limited private sector ag service provider and farmer involvement leading to very limited scaling of the initiative.
It is very important to connect with locally active agricultural knowledge hubs, users of the technologies, and service providers very active in this space to support and expand e-ag impact.
Elorm, what MOFA is doing with support from MOAP and under the WAAP are not e-Agricultural strategies. In fact Ghana's e-Agricultural strategy was developed in 2007 lead by the Ministry of Communication then. The Directorate of Agricultural Extension, MOFA got some support from the MOAP to develop an e-extension platform to support agric extension delivery in Ghana. The e-Agricultural platform is also being developed with support from the World Bank through the WAAP. This is supposed to be an agricultural portal linking all the major sources of agricultural information in the country. The e-Agricultural platform will in the end link up all the e-activities in the sector, including the e-extension platform. There has been a number of stakeholder activities, but I agree that it has not been enough. We are making representations to the project team to expand the process.
These are some of the challenges if you don't have a very good e-Agricultural strategy in place. It bring about dis-jointed projects and activities sometimes even in the same sector, leading to duplication of efforts and misuse of resources. There are many lessons to learn from the way we have implemented our e-Agricultural strategy in Ghana.
Elorm, what MOFA is doing with support from MOAP and under the WAAP are not e-Agricultural strategies. In fact Ghana's e-Agricultural strategy was developed in 2007 lead by the Ministry of Communication then. The Directorate of Agricultural Extension, MOFA got some support from the MOAP to develop an e-extension platform to support agric extension delivery in Ghana. The e-Agricultural platform is also being developed with support from the World Bank through the WAAP. This is supposed to be an agricultural portal linking all the major sources of agricultural information in the country. The e-Agricultural platform will in the end link up all the e-activities in the sector, including the e-extension platform. There has been a number of stakeholder activities, but I agree that it has not been enough. We are making representations to the project team to expand the process.
These are some of the challenges if you don't have a very good e-Agricultural strategy in place. It bring about dis-jointed projects and activities sometimes even in the same sector, leading to duplication of efforts and misuse of resources. There are many lessons to learn from the way we have implemented our e-Agricultural strategy in Ghana.
Hi Nyaneba, Ghana's e-agricultural strategy you did make reference to, is that the same as the policy statement captured in the ICT4D Policy which also includes e-health, e-learning, et al? If otherwise, do send me a web link to access the specific e-ag strategy doc. I am interested in having this document available for users of AgriHub Ghana Knowledge Space.
The private agribusiness sector in Ghana has been spearheading numerous efforts in expanding access to agricultural information through impact research, and relevant technical service provision. An e-ag strategy will surely help streamline efforts and look at scalability with appropriate resource support.
E-agriculture Strategy, as a guide to help align regional and country-level ICT in Agriculture is very laudable. This strategy is essential to increase technology adoption and also focus appropriate resource support to the agricultural sector.
In Ghana, I am aware of component e-agricultural strategies developed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture through donor-support. A case in point is the e-extension platform developed with support from GIZ funded Market Oriented Agricultural Programme (MOAP) and another with financing from the World-Bank West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP). In all these, the level of participation of relevant actors has been limited to the respective project design teams, consultants, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the funding agency. There has been very limited private sector ag service provider and farmer involvement leading to very limited scaling of the initiative.
It is very important to connect with locally active agricultural knowledge hubs, users of the technologies, and service providers very active in this space to support and expand e-ag impact.
Elorm, what MOFA is doing with support from MOAP and under the WAAP are not e-Agricultural strategies. In fact Ghana's e-Agricultural strategy was developed in 2007 lead by the Ministry of Communication then. The Directorate of Agricultural Extension, MOFA got some support from the MOAP to develop an e-extension platform to support agric extension delivery in Ghana. The e-Agricultural platform is also being developed with support from the World Bank through the WAAP. This is supposed to be an agricultural portal linking all the major sources of agricultural information in the country. The e-Agricultural platform will in the end link up all the e-activities in the sector, including the e-extension platform. There has been a number of stakeholder activities, but I agree that it has not been enough. We are making representations to the project team to expand the process.
These are some of the challenges if you don't have a very good e-Agricultural strategy in place. It bring about dis-jointed projects and activities sometimes even in the same sector, leading to duplication of efforts and misuse of resources. There are many lessons to learn from the way we have implemented our e-Agricultural strategy in Ghana.
Elorm, what MOFA is doing with support from MOAP and under the WAAP are not e-Agricultural strategies. In fact Ghana's e-Agricultural strategy was developed in 2007 lead by the Ministry of Communication then. The Directorate of Agricultural Extension, MOFA got some support from the MOAP to develop an e-extension platform to support agric extension delivery in Ghana. The e-Agricultural platform is also being developed with support from the World Bank through the WAAP. This is supposed to be an agricultural portal linking all the major sources of agricultural information in the country. The e-Agricultural platform will in the end link up all the e-activities in the sector, including the e-extension platform. There has been a number of stakeholder activities, but I agree that it has not been enough. We are making representations to the project team to expand the process.
These are some of the challenges if you don't have a very good e-Agricultural strategy in place. It bring about dis-jointed projects and activities sometimes even in the same sector, leading to duplication of efforts and misuse of resources. There are many lessons to learn from the way we have implemented our e-Agricultural strategy in Ghana.
Hi Nyaneba, Ghana's e-agricultural strategy you did make reference to, is that the same as the policy statement captured in the ICT4D Policy which also includes e-health, e-learning, et al? If otherwise, do send me a web link to access the specific e-ag strategy doc. I am interested in having this document available for users of AgriHub Ghana Knowledge Space.
The private agribusiness sector in Ghana has been spearheading numerous efforts in expanding access to agricultural information through impact research, and relevant technical service provision. An e-ag strategy will surely help streamline efforts and look at scalability with appropriate resource support.