Promoting sustainable agriculture in Africa through ecosystem‑based farm management practices: evidence from Ghana

The type of farming practices employed within an agro-ecosystem have some effects on its health and sustainable agricultural production. Thus, it is important to encourage farmers to make use of ecosystem-friendly farming practices if agricultural production is to be sustainable and this requires the identification of the critical success factors. This paper therefore examined the factors to consider in promoting sustainable agriculture production in Africa through ecosystem-based farm management practices (EBFMPs) using Ghana as a case study. The study employed mixed methods—qualitative and quantitative techniques. Data were collected through key informant interviews, focus group discussions and a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 300 households. The Poisson and negative binomial models were employed to determine the factors that influence farmers’ intensity of adoption of EBFMPs. Eight (8) EBFMPs were used in the paper as the dependent variable, which are organic manure application, conservation of vegetation, conservative tillage, mulching, crop rotation, intercropping with legumes, efficient drainage system and soil bunding

Climate and livelihood change in North East Ghana

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Mr. Meteo: Providing climate information for the unconnected

A majority of the world remain unconnected to the World Wide Web due to issues like low literacy and relevant information. This study presents Mr. Meteo, a system that provides weather information via voice calls in local languages to rural farmers in Ghana. The study used an interdisciplinary approach to identify relevant informational needs and socio-economic implications, and early end-user and stakeholder involvement. Mr. Meteo was deployed in Bolgatanga, Ghana and represents a novel design in terms of actual web data access to rural areas. The positive feedback from farmers, and stakeholder’s interest in continuity, shows this approach to be an appropriate method of development and implementation of information systems for rural areas; successful due to end-user and stakeholder involvement, focus on existing technologies, the use of voice technologies to mitigate the problem of illiteracy, and information relevance to end-users. This paper presents the methodology and results of this novel, practical, local-context ICT4D project,that has produced a viable information system for rural communities

Decolonizing Technology and Society: A Perspective from the Global South

Despite the large impact of digital technology on the lives and future of all people on the planet, many people, especially from the Global South, are not included in the debates about the future of the digital society. This inequality is a systemic problem which has roots in the real world. We refer to this problem as “digital coloniality.” We argue that to achieve a more equitable and inclusive global digital society, active involvement of stakeholders from poor regions of the world as co-researchers, co-creators, and co-designers of technology is required. We briefly discuss a few collaborative, community-oriented technology development projects as examples of transdisciplinary knowledge production and action research for a more inclusive digital society

Decolonizing Technology and Society: A Perspective from the Global South

Despite the large impact of digital technology on the lives and future of all people on the planet, many people, especially from the Global South, are not included in the debates about the future of the digital society. This inequality is a systemic problem which has roots in the real world. We refer to this problem as “digital coloniality.” We argue that to achieve a more equitable and inclusive global digital society, active involvement of stakeholders from poor regions of the world as co-researchers, co-creators, and co-designers of technology is required. We briefly discuss a few collaborative, community-oriented technology development projects as examples of transdisciplinary knowledge production and action research for a more inclusive digital society