Agrilinks

Ben is the Team Leader, ICTs for Agriculture at CTA, the Netherlands. He is an expert in digitalisation in agriculture - the intersection of digital solutions for agriculture, big data and analytics, innovative business development, and the enabling environment for scale and sustainability. He has over 20 years of experience with smallholder farming; agribusiness development; extension and advisory service; project design and implementation; resource mobilisation and grant management. He holds doctorate in information science and technology from Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA; master’s in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University, USA; and bachelor’s in general agriculture from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He has first-hand experience of smallholder agriculture in Ghana; spent over 4 years as agricultural extension supervisor with both the public and private sector service providers in northern Ghana; and spent 10 years in the US researching and exploring the potentials of ICTs in supporting agribusiness. At CTA, he leads a team that designs and implements initiatives aiming at reaching young entrepreneurs (agri and digital) and smallholder farmers. He is the architect and one of the authors of the Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report. He has led several initiatives at CTA including the organisation of the ICT4Ag International Conference in Kigali, 2013; the development and deployment of the CTA’s Apps4Ag Database; and the design, implementation and transition of a multi-million, multi-partnership, & multi-year MUIIS project into a commercial service in Uganda.