Tono (U/E), March 1, GNA- Farmers within the Tono Irrigation catchment area in the Upper East Region were on Friday taken through the rudiments of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve upon production.

The forum, which was organised by the Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) was to assess the level of information available to the farmers, their needs in terms of information and work out modalities to link the farmers to their counterparts in other parts of the world through the use of ICT.

The Co-ordinator of GINKS, Mr. Kofi Mangesi, addressing the farmers said apart from the Internet, one other reliable medium the farmers could access information was through radio broadcast, which he described as simple and specific.

He said studies indicated that farmers in the country, especially those in the three Northern Regions are consistently confronted with the problems of marketing their produce, new and improved methods of farming, common techniques in identifying and preventing diseases.

He said farmers in the Upper East Region could have taken precautionary measures if they were informed adequately on the types of tomato diseases and how to prevent them from attacking vegetables He said such useful information was available on the Internet.

Mr. Mangesi said his outfit would collaborate with stakeholders in the media and agriculture sectors to ensure that such information are available for farmers to access.

Mr. Dickson Bagbara, Programmes Manager of the Irrigation Company Of Upper Region (ICOUR), said information, has not been easy to access within the catchments of the project adding that the outbreak of some diseases could be prevented if information was readily available and shared among the farmers.

He urged the farmers to diversify their production in order to pre-empt the occurrence of outbreaks that would only ruin their farming carrier as happened last season with tomato production. He added that the advantage in diversification would enable them resort to other areas when the main crops fail.

He commended GINKS for the initiative and said it should not disappoint the farmers by making the programme a mere rhetoric and said the farmers welcome every move to get them useful information. The function was jointly organized by GINKS and ICOUR and had the theme "Integrating ICTs into Agriculture".