When drones began buzzing over her cassava field, Adjoa Mensah didn’t flinch she smiled. For the first time, something was watching her crops closer than the weather.
Across Ghana’s Eastern Region, a government-backed pilot is testing drone technology on smallholder farms, part of an ambitious bid to merge traditional farming with precision agriculture. The project, supported by ag-tech startups and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, aims to boost yields, cut pesticide waste, and prepare Ghana’s agriculture for a data-driven future.
But the real question isn’t whether drones can fly, it’s whether the idea can land.
For decades, high-tech agriculture has been the language of agribusiness giants. Yet here, it’s smallholder farmers , those tilling under five acres who are being handed the controls. Trials have shown early yield improvements of up to 30%, according to project leads, but scaling across Ghana’s fragmented farmlands will require more than hardware. It’ll take trust, training, and time.
“I used to spray by hand,” Adjoa says, wiping her brow. “The chemicals used to make me sick. Now the drone does it in minutes.” For farmers like her, the promise isn’t in the gadget , it’s in the relief, the safety, and the extra daylight left to tend to family or rest.
Kwame Boateng, founder of AgriSky ,one of the startups supplying the drones ,says the model must fit Ghana’s smallholder reality:
“A drone can serve ten farms a day. But if one flight costs more than a farmer earns in a week, innovation stops before it starts.”
At the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, officials echo the caution.
“We’re learning as we go,” says Deputy Director Efua Asante. “We see the potential, but cost models, regulation, and rural connectivity must all align before this becomes national policy.”
If it works, the implications go far beyond Ghana. Precision farming across West Africa could redefine how small-scale agriculture feeds a continent ;shrinking losses, improving climate resilience, and turning the world’s oldest industry into its newest data frontier.
TN Africa’s TAKE
Tech doesn’t land itself, adoption is the runway. Innovation in Africa doesn’t fail because it’s too ambitious, it fails when it forgets to bend toward the people it’s meant to serve. Drones, sensors, and AI can’t simply parachute into rural economies; they must take root in the soil of affordability, local skill, and shared ownership.
For Ghana’s precision farming pilot, success won’t be measured in flight hours or yield graphs, but in how seamlessly the technology weaves into daily life , the kind of adoption that turns tools into trust. Because in Africa’s tech revolution, the future won’t arrive with a buzz overhead. It’ll grow quietly, one smallholder at a time.