Agriculture and Rural Development Division

The Agricultural Information Management System is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge systems, especially the generation, processing, dissemination and use of agricultural information by farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture value chain. It provides early warning of imminent disasters, assesses vulnerabilities, monitors weather patterns and provides an integrated database for use in food security planning for the developing countries.

The system consists of a web and mobile application to manage accurate data and streamline the operational aspects of the agriculture sector by connecting all stakeholders into one hub. It carries a centralized database of farmer and farm field information along with geographical referencing, location data, weather data, irrigation system and fertilizer details. Remote sensing tools have been developed to monitor environmental changes and provide reliable satellite-based food security information, and the division provides food security bulletins, agro-meteorological updates and seasonal outlooks through its Agriculture Information Services.

An effective system provides policy makers, planners and economic players with access to reliable and timely information necessary for policy development, planning, emergency preparedness and decision-making.

The association's researchers have played a crucial role in food and nutrition security and agricultural productivity by increasing agricultural production to meet the food needs of a rapidly growing population. Investments in agriculture such as improved irrigation and drought-tolerant crops reduce price and income variability; nutritionally improved crops give access to better diets; and productivity gains are key to food security for households with poor access to food markets.

The association advances the research agenda coupled with supporting the generation and release of new agricultural technologies, while at the same time improving existing ones to promote agricultural productivity and food and nutrition security. It promotes climate resilience and other technologies suitable to the region and responds to challenges such as diseases and pests, building resilience to emerging agricultural risks including environmental risks, climate change, and trans-boundary pests and diseases.

Ghana has experienced an increased frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and excess rainfall. To cushion farming systems from such shocks the association implements climate resilience activities and programmes to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and conducts capacity building in agricultural productivity and the natural resource base, sustainable and conservation agriculture, sustainable intensification, climate smart agriculture, and agricultural land use change and policy, supporting farmers to improve the resilience of their production systems.

The association's researchers ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, help maintain ecosystems, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters, and progressively improve land and soil quality.

Researchers examine the specific research challenges over the next five years for 20 key crop commodities, and for livestock and farmed fish, in order to stimulate national research communities, public and private, to devote efforts to meeting those challenges. They also pursue policy research to identify broader constraints on agricultural progress resulting from misguided or counterproductive policies, while socio-economic and policy research contributes to prioritizing research agendas and to educating policy-makers on both the consequences of bad policies and the importance of agricultural research in solving national problems of food security and poverty.

Agriculture is the mainstay of developing economies, employing more than 60 percent of the total labour force in Ghana and other developing countries, underpinning food security, export earnings and rural development. Recent evidence also shows that smallholder agriculture in the developing countries, which at present is overall subsistence, can shift into commercial farming and thereby contribute more to improving rural livelihoods by utilising the power of markets.

Agricultural commercialization and diversification involve the gradual replacement of integrated farming systems by specialized enterprises for crop, livestock, poultry and aquaculture products. Changes in product mix and input uses are determined largely by market forces during this transition. Commercialization of agricultural production is an endogenous process, accompanied by economic growth, urbanization and the withdrawal of labour from the agricultural sector.

The association works towards clear identification and removal of the market-related challenges which hinder the economic progression of smallholder market participation, evident in countries where the majority of farmers are family-managed smallholder subsistence enterprises producing mainly for family consumption and, where applicable, selling surplus products to the markets.

The association's implementation plan recognises the importance of improved domestic and national agricultural markets in determining the competitiveness of the nation's agriculture and improving incomes for farmers. It trains smallholder farmers in accessing quality seeds and seedlings, mechanization, standard storage facilities that inform food preservation, adequate access to finance, access to agricultural markets, and irrigation services for all-year-round farming. All these factors make the market accessible for the poor rural farmer, the start-up agribusiness service provider and the low-income consumer.

Digital agriculture technologies work on Internet of Things principles and include sensors, telecommunication systems, unmanned aerial systems, machine intelligence, automation and other advanced machinery. A digital agriculture system is a crucial tool for managing agricultural risks: it can assess climate change risks, create a revenue protection policy, and produce a soil quality management programme.

Digital agriculture systems offer a unique perspective that improves the capacity to make and apply decisions. The system collects data accurately, such as weather information, using external sources; the combined data is examined and interpreted to help the farmer make better decisions; and robotics and advanced equipment quickly put those decisions into action with greater accuracy, so farmers can receive real-time feedback on the effects of their actions.

It is the use of digital technologies, integrated into one system, to enable farmers and other stakeholders to improve agricultural production from the farm to the consumer. Accurate weather predictions, yield mapping, variable-rate applications of water, herbicides and fertilizers, and GPS guiding systems are all components of digital agriculture.

Digital agriculture focuses on the knowledge underpinning, and the research required to deliver, a functioning digitally-enabled production and supply chain for agricultural food and fibre. It presents a novel method to meet the global challenge of increasing food production for a growing population, while not degrading soil and water resources in the process, and brings the power of digital and information technologies to the business of agriculture with great potential for success.

Digital agriculture science and technology research focuses on the application of technologies to improve the productivity and sustainability of agricultural and related industries. The association's researchers draw on expertise across computing and agricultural science, promoting research, innovation and education to support agricultural industries and ensure they remain internationally competitive. Key research and capacity building areas include improving agricultural production, sustainability, market access and profitability through tactical in-season farm and environmental data collection and monitoring, and optimising smart farm technologies and practices.

Digital technologies have the potential to revolutionise agriculture by helping farmers work more precisely, efficiently and sustainably. They are promoted as transformational for smallholders in the developing countries through the potential to enhance access to knowledge, increase productivity and improve food security, and they speed improvements in food systems while reducing environmental impacts.

By adopting digital agriculture technologies, smallholder farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises can gain ready access to data, expertise, finance, inputs and other resources to increase productivity, quality, business management practices, incomes and resilience.

Digital technologies also have the potential to offer consumers greater transparency as to how their food is produced, and they offer opportunities to renew business models in value chains by connecting producers and consumers in innovative ways. Beyond farming, digital technologies are key to making rural communities more attractive, smart and sustainable, and to reducing problems related to remoteness and improving access to services.

Data from each plot can be analyzed to provide information on soil, weather and crop growth patterns, giving actionable, geographically relevant and timely insights to prevent losses and optimize the productivity of each plot. Farmers can get their queries solved and manage the supply chain directly through applications on their phones. Through pre-harvest and post-harvest management, digital farming aims to cover all aspects of farming from farm to fork, and digital farmer services can be integrated into platforms that generate a steady stream of insights allowing public and private sector initiatives to improve their efficacy and efficiency.

Digital services can provide new options in the public and private sectors and ensure that subsistence producers can more reliably transition to earning a stable income, providing farmers with detailed insights into local soil conditions and crop performance, expanding access to financial services and market opportunities, and providing technical support for farm planning and field operations.

The association's goal is to offer a wide array of digital solutions that create value for stakeholders across the agricultural ecosystem. Its research makes use of the latest technologies, such as real-time nitrogen sensors and other hardware to optimize nitrogen use decisions, data science, analytics, crop and soil dynamic modeling, artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation of application and farm operations, and personalized digital platforms. The association undertakes research and innovation activities laying the ground for digitalised and data-empowered agriculture and rural areas.

The association's research in urban agriculture offers the opportunity to provide fresh, local food to urban communities.

Urban agriculture is the growing of plants and the rearing of animals primarily for food and other domestic use within a city or town and its environs. It also involves the production, processing, marketing and delivery of farming products, and consists of a number of production systems, varying from domestic production and household level processing to large scale agriculture, usually within the city peripherals.

While the practice of farming in areas outside what we would typically consider farmland may seem new, urban farming has a long history. One place where urban farming can easily be noticed is where the greatest concentration of manufacturing and service industries attracts people from all over the country. Although urban farmers cultivate different food crops such as maize and cassava, the most widespread is vegetables, because of their high demand.

In recent years urban farming has become a significant topic for agricultural sustainability and social justice advocates alike, as it can provide avenues to positive change. Urban agriculture shows great potential in the fulfilment of basic human needs: it not only provides food but also ensures a sustainable distribution and production system, creating employment opportunities and regular income for individuals, and helping countries protect their environment and save on foreign currency and transportation costs.

Although population pressures continue to displace traditional forms of agriculture from the urban environment, there are strong indications that a new intensive urban agriculture industry, capable of providing a significant proportion of the demand for fresh produce in cities the world over, is becoming a reality. The key challenge for those operating within this theme is to build on and integrate developments across a broad range of fields in order to bring scale and efficiency to the emerging industry, and the association seeks to examine the integrated science, technology and supply chain innovations required to develop it.

Women's empowerment is key to agricultural transformation. The agricultural sector has a unique potential for empowering women and providing diverse opportunities. About 80 percent of the world's food is produced by small-scale farming, and women make up on average 43 percent of agricultural labour in developing countries, and the majority in some. In Ghana, more than two thirds of employed women work in agriculture.

Women are actively involved in every part of the agricultural value chain, from the distribution of farm produce after harvest, to transportation, to processing at informal and small-scale level, and to the sale of the final product at the retail market where it reaches the final consumer. Women farmers are not only held back because they are women; they also face the challenges felt by all small-scale farmers.

For agricultural transformation to be truly inclusive, women must have equitable opportunities to participate and prosper. Around the world women play important roles in agriculture, including growing crops and tending livestock, but despite high levels of participation they have consistently lower productivity than men.

The association makes two kinds of investment in women's empowerment, which together help close systematic gender gaps in productivity and in access to services, markets and entrepreneurial opportunities. One is to integrate a gender focus into all agricultural investment initiatives; the other is to seek better data to inform government policies and priorities that target the needs of women in agriculture.

While the gap is partly due to cultural circumstances, evidence shows that systemic barriers affect the ability of women farmers to control productive resources and access information, credit and markets. The consequences include lower farm yields and lower household incomes, as well as less potential to improve family welfare, given that women tend to invest more readily than men in their family's well-being. Empowering women farmers therefore magnifies the association's contribution to improving productivity, income and nutrition outcomes for vulnerable households.

The association's researchers seek to break down the barriers holding back women farmers and preventing them from accessing critical farming inputs. In partnership with other stakeholders the association works to ensure women have secure land rights, and to provide women with vital funding and support for farming and for adapting to climate change, support expected to protect their rights and boost their productivity.

Food security is an integral part of national security, and Ghana and other developing countries target policies and plans to boost local food production towards attaining self-sufficiency. With a rapidly growing population, the developing countries cannot afford to rely on food imports for survival. This is where the agricultural sector comes in, because with agriculture the possibilities are endless.

Inclusiveness is important in the agricultural sector. Women, youth and social inclusion recognise that women and young people make essential contributions to the agricultural and rural economies and play crucial roles in contributing to food security. However, many agricultural sectors remain largely male dominated, very few women get access to support, and where women are involved they are restricted to later segments of cultivation activity with very minimal financial returns.

In the developing countries women's contributions to agriculture are immense, as they form the largest share of the agricultural labour force. However, women continue to face significant challenges that perpetuate their economic inequality, including limited access to quality farmland, the inability to mobilize male family labour, the absence of cash income and credit, the burden of unpaid domestic work, and cultural and social barriers that limit their participation in the sector.

In all of its programmes the association ensures that women and young people are included, to set them on the same footing as other players in the agricultural sector. Women provide about 43% of the labour for agricultural production in the developing countries, excluding other household work. The association's researchers address the structural and societal barriers that hinder their empowerment and equality, since key changes within agribusiness are required to foster a more inclusive environment for women and youth in agriculture in Africa.

The division addresses these challenges with a multi-faceted approach that involves working with communities to challenge gender norms, providing women with access to land and financial services, and designing extension services that are gender responsive. Prioritising women's inclusion in agriculture will unlock the potential of millions of women farmers and build a more sustainable and prosperous future for all.

The association's researchers build the capacity of technical officers, farmers, women and young people, aimed at improving their skills to better carry out their day-to-day duties in the field of agricultural development. To bridge the gap that exists as a result of the dearth of practical agricultural skills and knowledge, the association runs several training programmes designed and delivered to different target groups, short and long term, provided to farmers as well as to staff in the public sector.

Since inception the association has created, and continues to create, strategic partnerships and to strengthen existing ones in order to deliver on its mission. Its commitment to transforming agricultural landscapes and empowering rural communities is gaining momentum, with ongoing activities that foster collaboration and capacity building for agro-dealers.

The strategic partnerships are designed to harness and nurture a broad range of alliances with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, multilateral and inter-governmental organisations, farmer organisations, national and international research organisations, commodity networks, NGOs, and technical and private organizations, to catalyse agricultural transformation in the developing countries. By promoting sustainable agriculture, the partnerships support the developing countries in realizing the global sustainable development goals of ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition.

To reach this goal the association harmonizes and aligns its approach with strategic sustainability programmes and standards nationally and internationally, opening pathways for additional recognition for farmers and stakeholders across the food and agriculture value chain. Its goal is to serve as an innovative and catalytic force to strengthen, diversify and grow the association's capacity for resource mobilization, science and impact delivery.