The FAO Digital Services Portfolio is a project that was started in November 2016 in Rulindo, Rwanda and Tambacounda, Senegal.The project included the development and distribution of 4 mobile applications to smallholder farmers. This project comes as a realisation that digital services are changing how farmers work and also from the understanding that ICTs can maximise various social support services for farmers – such services include rural advisory services, financial services and social protection programmes, access to market information and disease control. The four apps were the Cure and...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners will hold the Digital Agriculture Transformation Seminar: The challenges to be addressed . The seminar will be held in Rome, Italy on the 12th and 13th of June, 2019. The seminar aims to foster an exchange among stakeholders(...
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has organized the Digital Agriculture Transformation Seminar which will be held on the 12th and 13th of June, 2019. The theme of the seminar is 'The challenges to be addressed'. The two day seminar will focus on the transformational digital technologies such as smart phones, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-based services, and smart and prediction technologies such as artificial technologies and interconnected data-driven systems such as blockchain technologies. The purpose of the seminar is to foster an exchange among stakeholders (policy-makers,...
The e-Agriculture community is now above 15,000 users . e-Agriculture is a global community of practice, where people from all over the world exchange information, ideas, and resources related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable agriculture and rural development. Becoming a member of e-Agriculture Community of Practice provides possibilities to: Connect with other community members and share experiences Follow news and blogs published on the e-Agriculture platform Shar e good practices in the use of ICTs in agriculture Learn about new digital trends...
The Technologies and Practices for Small Agricultural Producers (TECA) is an online platform that gathers successful agricultural technologies and practices to facilitate knowledge exchange and help family farmers in the field. Recently TECA has launched the first moderated discussion on the topic of Agricultural Mechanization and is done between FAO AGPM and the Young Professionals in Agriculture and Rural Development (YPARD). The online discussion will be held from the 3rd to the 15th of April 2019 and is addressing the question, “ Can mechanization drive youth into agriculture in Sub-...
In most developing countries due to rural-urban migration, rural communities are losing young people and agriculture is robbed of the needed workforce. The result has been that many smallholder farms have more women and girls remaining on the farms providing bulk of the labour force. Advances in agricultural innovation are important to support rural livelihoods and are poised to support the role of women in our food systems. Furthermore, the digital revolution has changed the way we work and offers opportunities when implemented fairly. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in...
By Günther Feiler , Capacity Development Officer, FAO Rome, and Thomas Muenzel , Investment Support Officer, FAO Bangkok ( The article was originally published by the ICTworks and we reproduce for our community. All rights acknowledged) Experience has shown that substantial public investments in agricultural production, transport and storage infrastructure, combined with private on-farm investment are essential for promoting pro-poor economic growth, bringing people out of poverty and ending food insecurity and malnutrition. The FAO State of Food and Agriculture Report in 2012 found that the...
There is a growing acceptance of blockchain use in food and agriculture. This comes as part of the growth of ICTs in the last decade and technology has promised to open many opportunities to overcome some of the challenges faced in agriculture. For example, technology can allow more inclusion, simplification of process within the agricultural systems, including on-farm and off-farm activities. In light of blockchains in agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) together with its partners have published three documents so far on blockchains. These publications are: Emerging...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have recently published a title called, ‘ Blockchain for Agriculture, Opportunities and Challenges ’ as part of the E-Agriculture in Action series publications. This is part of the collaboration of working together of the two UN Agencies to work together to promote the use of sustainable information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture. The focus of the publication is on blockchain technology in agriculture. The aim of the book is to demystify the technology,...
2018 has been a remarkable year for the e-Agriculture. We continued to foster the global community of practice through dialogue, information exchange and sharing of ideas related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable agriculture and rural development. We thank all our members, partners and those that collaborated with us to realise the activities in 2018. We began the year on a high note and boosted by the migration of the e-Agriculture website to a new corporate theme website in May of 2018. We would like to thank our users for the patience during...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners will hold the Digital Agriculture Transformation Seminar: The challenges to be addressed . The seminar will be held in Rome, Italy on the 12th and 13th of June, 2019. The seminar aims to foster an exchange among stakeholders(...
