On site workshops were held in all partner countries on the topic of Smart Farming Technologies. The participants were mainly farmers, employees of agricultural ministries and third party service providers working in this topic. Two of these workshops, in Ghana and Tunisia, were held locally with lectures from local experts and European partners in the SustInAfrica project. The workshops in Egypt, Niger and Burkina Faso were held exclusively by local experts, which were supported by video files produced specifically for this purpose. Topics covered included an introduction to the smart farming technologies, presentations to enhance the innovation adoption as well as presentations about challenges for local farmers in crop production providing ideas to solve these with specific smart farming technologies, like smart irrigation systems, UAV based proximal sensing or AI-based insect monitoring. After the presentations discussions, field trips and a survey for technology interest and adoption barriers were taken.
The workshop in Ghana for twenty participants was held on the UCC campus and included a 5-hour period for presentations and a field visit including a drone flight for demonstration purposes. In Niger, 37 participants took part in the one-day workshop at the Abdou Moumouni University campus. This was followed by group discussions on the technologies presented. In Burkina Faso, 28 people took part in the workshop, which was extended to two days in order to better address the special interests of different groups, smallholder farmers and employees of agricultural ministries. In addition to the theoretical presentations, there was also a practical exercise on handling biochar and heap composting.
The Smart Farming Technologies workshop in Egypt took place at the Sekem site in Belbeis. For half a day the 55 participants listened to theoretical presentations and visited a SustInAfrica weather station in the field. In Tunisia the workshop was done for 23 persons, who attended multiple presentations for half a day. During and after the workshop participants consistently raised discussions about the described technologies.