CTED embarks on projects to aid smallholder farmers in Kumawu
The Centre for Technology Empowerment and Development (CTED) has embarked on a number of projects to help farmers and the people of Kumawu in the Ashanti region.
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The projects, which began five years ago, includes the construction of a Kumawu Palace Museum, the establishment of a land administration secretariat, the Kumawuman Educational Fund, Kumawuman Development and Investment Trust and the CETD.
These projects seek to improve the quality of life of the people of the area while opening up the town to more investment opportunities.
Speaking at an event to outdoor the projects, the Paramount Chief of Kumawu, Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua expressed joy at the projects and stated that he was particularly concerned about raising the standard of education in the area.
According to him, quality education played a critical role in the development of any community and that was why the setting up of the educational fund was important.
The fund awarded seven brilliant but needy SHS students with scholarships packages.
Touching on other projects especially the Kumawuman Development Investment Trust, Barima Kodua said it was created to provide financial planning and income-generating opportunities to the community.
“Now in its second year of operation, the Kumawuman Palace Museum, built by CTED and the Traditional Council, showcased an exhibition featuring traditional artifacts contributed from community members, documentary films, a chieftaincy administration guide, and cultural heritage programs,” he said.
The forum also witnessed the introduction of a new mobile app designed to help smallholder farmers in the area to revolutionize the way they trade and open new markets was also introduced at the event.
Developed by CTED in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the mobile app is able to help farmers demarcate and map their farms and also helping to find easy and quick markets for their produce.
Explaining further, Professor Yaw Nyarko, who is also Director of the CTED, said the development of the mobile app was to ensure that some complications that farmers continue to encounter was eliminated.
“The foremost way in which economic development can be enhanced is through technology. By utilizing mobile apps, sophisticated image recognition processing, and big data, CTED can gain insights to market trends, agricultural yields, flow of goods, and much more. This data has the potential to inform community leaders and members for long-term planning and maximum socio-economic impact,’’ he stated.
The Center for Technology Empowerment and Development (CTED) is a research center at New York University (NYU) that focuses on the development of innovative and cutting edge technologies that can significantly impact economic development with a specific focus on problems faced in under-developed areas around the world.
