BY SIBUSISEKILE NDLANGAMANDLA
MANZINI– Thirty-seven farmer clusters across 40 project sites are shifting from paper-based records to digital agricultural information systems under the Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Marketing Project.
The transition is being supported through training for 91 farmer cluster leads and extension officers to strengthen the digital collection, management and reporting of agricultural information.
The training, facilitated by the Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (EWADE), brought together 56 farmer cluster leads and 35 extension officers representing the 37 farmer clusters. Participants were introduced to farmer diaries, the Smallholder Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Marketing Project digital cluster tool and the EWADE information system.
Digital tools are intended to support the collection and management of information from the field, allowing project progress, services and results to be tracked through digital records. The project has already profiled 3 000 farmers as the digital system is developed to manage information for its 19 600 targeted beneficiaries.
This shift to digital data collection is also expected to strengthen access to agricultural information for those supporting farmers at cluster and extension levels. Through the system, information captured from project sites can be managed and reported as part of the project’s monitoring process.
Training is equipping farmer cluster leads and extension officers with practical knowledge of the tools they will use to capture and report agricultural information. The digitalisation forms part of efforts to strengthen information management under the project as activities are implemented across the participating farmer clusters and project sites.
With 3 000 farmers already profiled, the system is being developed alongside the continued implementation of the project to support information management for the wider beneficiary group.
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(Courtesy Pic)
