Ghana leveraging on digital technology to unlock agriculture potentials – Veep

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says Government is leveraging on digital technology to unlock agriculture potentials in the country and stimulate economic growth.

To that end, he said government over the years, had been instituting appropriate policies and laws to ensure smallholder farmers, agripreneurs, small-and-medium scale enterprises, farm organisations and other critical stakeholders in the agriculture value chain use digital technology to engender efficiency in their operations.

He said Ghana had been using digital technology in farmer registration, inputs distribution, market information, farm and soil mapping, irrigation system management, surveillance at sea, weather forecast and supply of essential medicines to hard-to-reach areas.

He, therefore, encouraged other African countries to be proactive and have the political will to use digital technology, in order to provide decent job opportunities for the youth and promote social inclusion, as well as ensure economic growth and alleviate poverty on the Continent.

Vice President Bawumia gave the advice in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, at the opening of the 2019 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Accra on Tuesday.

The AGRF is the ninth edition, which is the brainchild of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was the founding chairperson of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa: hence the forum was moved to Accra this year, to coincide with the one-year anniversary of his passing.

The event is the world’s premier forum for African agriculture, pulling together stakeholders in the agricultural landscape to discuss and commit policies, programmes and investments to achieve an inclusive and sustainable agricultural transformation across the African Continent.

The forum attracted about 2,300 delegates from 79 countries in Africa and across the globe, including Heads of State, Ministers of Agriculture, Central Bank Governors, captains of industry, development partners, representatives of farmer organizations, youth entrepreneurs and other critical stakeholders.

It will also evaluate how far the African Continent has progressed in the past decade and look at ways to jumpstart what needs to be done differently in the next five to 10 years, to put Africa’s agriculture on a new footing, with digitisation as a key driver for agricultural transformation.

Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, the Convener of the AGRF, in her welcome address, outlined three key objectives for this year’s forum.

They include leveraging on digital technology to leapfrog Africa’s agricultural development, dealing with climate change challenges on agriculture and striking partnerships between entrepreneurs through new business deals to achieve the African green revolution agenda.