Esoko introduces Ghana’s first farmer helpline
Esoko, a private company championing the course of Ghanaian farmers through technology has introduced its latest innovation to aid the Ghanaian farmer.
Advertisement
The call centre dubbed, “farmer helpline” is designed to provide expert agricultural advice to farmers.
Available to anyone dialling 1900, a group of agricultural experts are on-hand to answer questions ranging from issues pertaining to diseases and pest, post-harvest issues, storage, use of pesticides and fertilisers, among others.
The Esoko farmer helpline is available during normal working hours with experts providing answers in 12 local languages at regular call rates on Vodafone, MTN and Airtel, and currently with plans of adding other networks soon.
Officially unveiling the call centre after a pilot, the Manager of the helpline, Ms Mary Naah, said the main objective of the call centre was to improve the livelihood of Ghanaian farmers.
She also recounted some of the experiences the call centre had had with local farmers describing it as an “exciting” experience.
“During the pilot, we had farmers call in with questions such as, ‘will it rain on Saturday in Tumu? When do I plant? Where can I find pesticides? What do I do if the rains haven’t fallen,” she recounted.
Ms Naah added, “We are really helping and the whole team is inspired every day. We can especially help women farmers who are often less able to get support and advice.”
The Chief Executive Officer of Esoko, Mr Mark Davies, explains that “there is a lot of hype out there about how smart phones and SMS services can help farmers, but you really have got to go back to basics and offer them answers in their own language from dedicated professionals they can trust.
USAID partnership
The helpline project was made possible with partnership from NGOs and the USAID.
The Mission Director of USAID, Mr Jim Bever, who officially commissioned the centre lauded the company for the innovation and called for pragmatic efforts to improve its sustainability.
According to him, the project was a creative innovation that would go a long way to help increase agriculture, boost food production and ultimately improve the livelihood of Ghanaian farmers.
The farmer’s bane
Agriculture in Ghana consists of a variety of agricultural products and is an established economic sector, which provides employment on a formal and informal basis.
Ghana produces a variety of crops in various climatic zones which range from dry savanna to wet forest and which run in Eastwest bands across Ghana.
Agricultural crops, including yams, grains, cocoa, oil palms, kola nuts, and timber, form the base of agriculture in Ghana's economy.
In spite of this rosy picture, Ghana still imports almost every crop because the vast arable land across the country is not being utilised.
Ghanaian farmers get very little or no support from the government to enable them to move their subsistence way of farming to commercial farming.
They lack access to financial facilities from the banks because their business is considered too risky to fund with loans.
Road networks to the farms across the country is so poor that the few foodstuffs produced almost always remain in the farmlands and later rot.
Framers lose money and in the end many of them, in their quest to avoid harassment from individuals who loan them some funds to plant, commit suicide.
Advertisement
Way forward
It is expected that with this initiative from Esoko, farmers will be in a better stead to seek information of diseases and pest, post-harvest issues, storage, use of pesticides and fertilisers among others which they seldom get from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and its agencies on a regular basis.
It could be the beginning of the long journey to making farmers better off and they will be required to take full advantage of the opportunity.
On the other hand, Esoko is expected to make the new initiative known to the farmers through the various media.