Foster K Mensah
Executive Director
Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS), University of Ghana
Ghana

Biography
Mr Foster Mensah is the Executive Director of Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services, a Geo-information Services and Research Support Centre based at the University of Ghana. He has worked with the Centre since 1994, when he was engaged as Applications Specialist on the World Bank funded Ghana Environmental Management Project, commissioned by the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency to produce a national digital map of current land use, with accompanying bulletins for each administrative region at the scale of 1:250,000 using satellite image data. He has subsequently worked as project manager on a number of GIS/Remote Sensing related projects for the World Bank, UNDP, African Development Bank, and the Government of Ghana, and provided remote sensing and GIS support to a number of research projects. Foster is a geo-information specialist with professional experience is in land use/land cover mapping from remotely sensed imagery GPS Mapping and spatial modelling and GIS database development. EDUCATION: B.Sc. (Geodetic Engineering) Post Graduate Diploma (Integrated Map and Geo-Information Production) MPhil (Geography and Resource Development) CONTACT +233-302-500301/501796 +233-243-352468 fmensah@ug.edu.gh www.cersgis.org

Abstract
Supporting Agricultural Development In Ghana With Geospatial Technologies

Agriculture is a key component of Ghana?s economic development strategy and therefore the cornerstone of poverty reduction. It accounts for about 39% of Gross Domestic Product, GDP, providing employment to about 51% of the labour force or 4.2 million people and a major foreign exchange earner. The sector is dependent on smallholder cropping systems with an average farm holding of about 2 hectares of land using traditional farming practices and seeds from the previous harvest and intercropped cultivation systems, partly to reduce the risk of total crop failure. Although Ghanaian farmers have made some modest gains in agricultural performance in recent times, this growth has been driven largely by the extension of land under cultivation, rather than by agricultural intensification with increased productivity. In order to realise the potential of agriculture, and to complement the efforts of farmers to develop sustainable agriculture production in Ghana, enhanced capacities of key stakeholders in the use of geospatial tools is required. CERSGIS in collaboration with GMV Innovating Solutions S.L., has proposed the development of a National geo-information driven agriculture information system to support data collection and management for estimating crop yield and crop production, provide early warning alerts on imminent food insecurity, provide input for policy formulation, sectorial planning, and monitoring activities. The presentation outlines our project rationale, and implementation framework for building a national geospatial infrastructure for the agriculture sector in Ghana.