Henson Geodata Technologies Ltd (HGT), a Ghanaian registered GIS technology company was awarded the second runner-up Prize out of 20 finalists at the Grand finale of the Feed the Future Fall Armyworm TechPrize held in Cape Town South Africa on 14 November 2018.
It crowns a strongly contested competition for digital tools and approaches that provide timely, context-specific information that enables smallholder farmers and those who support them to identify, treat, and track incidence of fall armyworm (FAW) in Africa.
The award was for IGEZA an AI, GIS and IVR– driven pests and crop disease detection, instant geo-notification, mapping, real-time pesticides recommendation, and knowledge base system with a mobile and web platforms for smallholder farmers in Africa.IGEZA allows smallholder farmers and extension workers to scan for pests like fall armyworm (FAW) and instantly access recommended pesticides, map their farms, learn about the FAW detection and management, alert community of experts and policy makers and communicate with them in their local language.
Extension workers and other experts are also able to monitor and access data on pest and disease infestations across farms through the cloud-based Igeza Control Centre.
‘We have had tremendous interaction with our pilot community that started in June’, said Dr. Kofi Henaku. ‘We thank the farmers and agricultural extension workers for their constructive feedback to improve Igeza. Special thanks also go to Kojo Ahiakpa for his leadership, Dr. Michael Osae (Deputy Director of BNARI, at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission) and his team for technical leadership.’ As Dr. Osae said, ‘Igeza is simply meant to enhance the quality of service delivery to our farmers’.
Henson Geodata Technologies has researched and developed a number of location-based technologies such as a base map of Africa, a spatial data infrastructure for Africa, an ERP Solution to drive business efficiencies, a mobile banking solution and an insurance claim notification service.
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