The Savannah Agriculture Research Institute of the Council for Scientific Research Institute (SARI-CSRI) and Country Wise Communications, a private agency, have jointly won two awards at the International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) Clarion Awards 2013 in London.

They were awarded the Mobile Communication Category and the IVCA Chairman's Gold Awards 2013 for developing a simple but effective and efficient innovation to disseminate information, especially on agriculture through the use of motor king video van to communities without electricity.

Mr Phil Malone, Director of Countrywise Communication-UK, told the GNA in a telephone interview that Mr Steve Garvey, IVCA Chairman, presented the awards to the two officials, Mr Raymond Vuol of Countrywise Communication Ghana and Dr. Wilson Dogbe, a Senior Research Scientist at CSIR-SARI at a ceremony in London.

He said the Chairman of IVCA praised the inventiveness of the two who teamed up to come out with such an invention to address major challenges of educating farmers in the hinterland to ensure that best practises were observed in the sector to boost production.

“All the Ghanaian team did was that they invested $5,000 to buy a motor tricycle, carry out adaption and then fit it out with all of the equipment needed for showing agricultural videos in remote parts of Northern Ghana,” he said.

Mr Malone said two men were trained to operate the “Video Van” who travel from village to village and collect valuable data about audience feedback.

Dr Dogbe said as part of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) component of the Agricultural Value Chain Mentorship Project (AVCMP), it had developed farming technologies which needed to reach farmers to enhance productivity, hence the development of the tri-cycle motor video technology.

Mr Vuol said within the first month of operation, 8,000 farmers had seen videos in their own language, which Ms Jane Karuku, the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), commended the initiative during her recent visit.