In AgricinGhana:
The Savannah Young Farmers Network (SYFN) is a youth-led NGO in Ghana that uses ICTs to deliver agricultural and rural advisory services, and promote the active engagement of young people in agriculture. One example of how they do this is their Audio Conferencing for Extension (ACE) project, currently running in selected communities in the Builsa District of northern Ghana.More hereThe project addresses the challenges farmers face with agricultural extension, where services can be irregular, and farmers are not involved in the development of content. Many young farmers feel especially that extension delivery methodologies are not tailored to their specific needs to see agriculture as a business, while the steady decline in productivity leads to the migration of youth to urban areas to look for non-existent jobs.
Image of Moses Nganwani Tia courtesy of AgricGhana
ACE uses audio conferencing technology to involve farmers in regular meetings with agricultural officers from SYFN, and a wide variety of agricultural extension experts, agronomists, ICT professionals and researchers from various institutions. SYFN currently works with 25 farmer based organisations, covering more than 200 farmers. Each farmer group has an audio conference twice a week, with the option to call for an emergency meeting, if the need arises.
