To provide agricultural value chain players with transformative extension services, the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) has established an e-Extension Strategy Plan.
These ICT-based services are intended to be effective, efficient, inclusive, long-term, and demand-driven.
The e-Extension service will be decentralized, but it will be coordinated at the national level, with the private sector playing a key role.
The Director of DAES, Paul Siameh, stated during the introduction of the plan in Accra last Thursday that the initiative began in 2020 but required adjustments and alterations owing to the COVID-19 epidemic.
Limited extension staff, according to Mr Siameh, have resulted in the loss and degradation of agricultural extension and rural advisory services.
According to him, in 2017, there were 1,586 agricultural extension agents (AEA) serving 3.37 million farmers.
He said that this put a significant strain on the available employees, as well as having an impact on the efficacy and efficiency of extension services.
However, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has requested permission to recruit.
“The Minister’s action considerably enhanced and raised the number of extension agents to 4,286 in 2019, bringing the AEA: Farmer ratio to 1:706 in 2019,” Mr Siameh stated.
Unfortunately, he said, the improved AEA: Farmer ratio from the 2,700 new recruits fell short of the ideal ratio of 1:500.
According to Mr Siameh, the MoFA commissioned Farm Radio International (FRI) to develop a well-researched strategy and plan to enhance Digital Agricultural Advisory Services through the DAES and with support from Global Affairs Canada under the Modernising Agriculture in Ghana Project.
This was supposed to be a part of the National Agricultural Extension System, and it was supposed to help men and women farmers, as well as other agricultural value chain actors.
According to him, the Plan was created following a two-year study of case studies, scanning and analyzing ICT technologies utilized in Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Malawi, as well as examining the capability of extension officers.
Doctor Pascal Attengdem, a consultant for DAES and FRI, presented a presentation on the e-Extension Strategy and Plan’s concept, which he divided into five parts.
He described the strategy as transformative because it included a wide range of ICT and digital tools and devices, including radio, telephony, video, television, mobile applications and devices, social media, and emerging technologies, all of which were in line with the country’s agricultural extension policy’s guiding principles.
“We’ve been confronted with the need to shift away from the traditional farmer-to-farmer, extension agent-to-farmer, and visiting houses to talk to people sort of extension since it’s now clear that ICT or electronic gadgets can accomplish the same thing and more successfully,” Dr Attengdem added.
In order to avoid missing out on project execution, he urged stakeholders, particularly universities, to provide courses teaching agriculturalists on e-Extension.