The Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI) as part of its project titled “Enhancing farmers’ uptake of digital technologies through empirical research, innovation and policy intervention (EFUDTRIPI)” has held an advocacy engagement with policy makers. The event was held on 30th December 2024 at the Erata Hotel in East Legon, Accra.
The overall objective of this project is to strengthen policies to enhance farmers’ access and uptake of good quality digital technologies and services for increased productivity and income. The project is funded by the European Union through the OACPS Research and Innovation Fund under the AGriDI Project coordinated by the ICIPE.
Since the commencement of the project in March 2022, CSIR-STEPRI has organised several engagements with different stakeholder groups. First, the inception workshop was organised where stakeholders were informed about the objectives of the project and their expected roles. Other follow up activities were the survey conducted among farmers to understand their level of use of digital technologies and focus group discussions with farmers and digital technology developers and service providers to have better insights into their challenges and possible solutions.
Subsequently, information gathered from the survey and focus group discussions were shared with stakeholders at a dissemination workshop and recommendations were cocreated. Further, a policy dialogue was held to discuss the policy recommendations as well as pathways to enhance their uptake by policy makers.
As part of activities to wrap up the project, an advocacy event was organised to strengthen the partnership between CSIR-STEPRI and policy makers for the implementation of the recommendations from project. Thus, the objectives of the advocacy workshop were:
- To solicit the buy-in and support of policy makers for increased utilization of digital technologies and innovations in the agricultural sector, especially by farmers.
- To develop action plans for the implementation of some of the recommendations.
- To strengthen the partnership and collaboration between CSIR-STEPRI and the policy makers.
Presentations were made by Dr. Rose Omari, the Principal Investigator and other project team members, Dr. Portia Adade Willaims and Dr, Godfred Frempong. Action plans were developed to address five key challenges: 1) Low access to digital technologies, 2) Affordability, 3) Cybersecurity, 4) Low access to extension services, 5) Data and Information Sharing. The participants included policy makers from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation (MOCD), Ministry of Information (MOI) and Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI).
The Chairperson for the event was the Director of CSIR-STEPRI, Dr Mrs Wilhemina Quaye.
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