2009 SAG Award Winners

Trade & Investment Program for a Competitive Export Economy

Project Goal

The ultimate goal of TIPCEE is to achieve exponential growth in sales of non-traditional exports over the five-year life of the project by increasing the competitiveness of Ghana’s private sector in world markets.

To achieve this goal, the Project works with all actors in the supply chain from farm to the market as well as with policymakers to ensure enabling environment for private sector to operate profitably.

The Project has two components; Export Business Development and Enabling Environment. The Export Business Development component has teams working on marketing, enterprises, smallholders and business development services and the Enabling Environment component has specialists focusing on six key policy areas: macroeconomic, monetary and fiscal issues; trade policy; agricultural policy; financial markets; labour markets; and regulatory frameworks for infrastructure services.

TIPCEE works with mango, papaya, pineapple, cashew, vegetables, and medicinal plants. In 2007, th

Business Problem Solved

TIPCEE’s goal can only be achieved if available data on selected horticultural commodities are accurate, reliable, current and precise. The dispersion and lack of clear data to ensure an accurate planning of production – output levels, cultivated areas per crop, yields and production systems; coordination of logistics and general management of the productivity of horticultural commodities proves to be a major constraint to competitiveness and long-term success of investments into the industry.

This has led to poor production planning, inability to forecast yields, assess supply base and monitor small holder production. Farmers often over-estimate their farm sizes and over-pay for labor and other services. Resource allocation and targeting of small-scale producers for assistance and support has been difficult. Finally, knowledge of farm sizes down to the plot level is a requirement under GlobalGAP certification.

The use of GIS technology has improved farm data considerably (locat

Technology Implemented

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology provides spatial information on the production of various commodities and allows data to be related to geographical location. TIPCEE has since project inception supported and promoted the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and GIS technology in the horticultural industry. The application of the GIS technology, has the potential to significantly improve production planning for export produce and provide the means to keep the wise base of small farms in conformity to the export supply chain requirements in terms of traceability and precision production monitoring.

• TIPCEE has established an internal GIS platform fully equipped with the requisite software (ESRI’s ArcGIS), base maps, plotters and printers to enhance the application of GIS technology in the horticulture sector. This service is available to TIPCEE clients, partners, beneficiaries and all stakeholders in the horticultural industry and will be integrated into the MOFA

Development Team Biography

Many of the TIPCEE staff have been involved in GIS work headed by Edwin Afari. A lot of our collaborators mostly Agricultural Extension Agents of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and selected smallholder farmers have been trained in the use of GPS to pick waypoints and data processing using ArcGIS