CocoaLink, an innovative program designed to improve access to information and services via mobile technology, was, yesterday, launched in Accra.

The program is expected to provide cost-effective and feasible mechanism for improved farmer extension service delivery, and communicate practical, timely and important agricultural and social information to cocoa farmers.

The program will, therefore, help farmers to access and use relevant information to improve their farming activities to enhance their livelihoods.

Speaking at the launch, Dr Robert Aidoo, a lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, and Extensions at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said the program was introduced with the objective of reinforcing extension services delivery in cocoa-growing communities in Ghana to improve income and livelihoods.

Dr Aidoo disclosed that farmers would receive weekly text and voice messages, in English or Twi, on planting, weeding, weedicides and pesticide application, fertilizer application, harvesting and disease control.

He said the program was a two-way channel communication tool by which farmers would be able to send their questions onto the platform for prompt feedback form experts.

According to Dr Aidoo, farmers who had registered with CocoaLink would benefit from weekly educational sessions co-ordinated by Local Information Programmes (LIPs), together with Community Extension Agents of COCOBOD and CocoaLink Field Agents to facilitate mobile literacy and discuss message content further.

He explained that CocoaLink served as a supporting channel for cocoa extension services which allowed farmers to access important cocoa growing content to enhance productivity through improvement in agricultural techniques.