The Humanitarian UAV Network is inviting interested persons, entities and organizations within the International Humanitarian field to comment and contribute to the next version of the Humanitarian UAV/Drone Code of Conduct and Guidelines by the 1st of October 2018. Background to the call In May 2018, WeRobotics co-organized an Experts Meeting on Drones in Humanitarian Action . The Meeting amongst many other outcomes, revised the existing Humanitarian UAV/ Drone Code of Conduct considering developments in the use of drones in conflict zones and for cargo delivery. The sessions which were well...
The Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) has launched 3 mobile apps to facilitate access to information on agricultural research. The East African reports that Boniface Akuku, director for ICT at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, helped Uganda develop the apps. The applications launched are the Naro Beans, Naro Maize and Naro Cassava and all are available via Google Play store. The choice of the three crops - bean, maize and cassava is because these crops are major commodities, alongside coffee, tea, bananas and rice. Besides the apps, an SMS...
The International Telecommunication Union is organizing the ITU Workshop on "Multimedia applications and the future of digital society", which will take place on 9 July 2018 at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre, Dunajska cesta 18, Ljubljana, Slovenia. This workshop will focus on how...
FAO Investment Centre is hosting its ninth internal knowledge-sharing event, Investment Days 2018 on the 4th and 5th of July at FAO headquarters in Rome. The two-day event will focus on the following sub-themes: (i) Innovative finance in food and agriculture, and (ii) Digital agriculture. See the...
The finalists of the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize In the beginning of the year we posed the question, Can ICTs be used to fight pest’s outbreaks ? Such as the Fall Armyworm? At that time the two initiatives by Farm Radio Trust and CABIs Pest Risk Information Service) PRISE stood out. Recently, we just announced FAO and Pennsylvania State University launched the Nuru app for the Fall Armyworm. In 6 months, thanks to the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize, a number of ICT-based initiatives have come to the fore. The Finalist in the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize On March 28, 2018, Feed the Future and its partners...
The WSIS Process has just announced the opening of submissions for the #WSISPrizes2019 . All stake holders are invited to submit #WSIS related projects during the period 2 July to 30th of November 2018. WSIS prizes are part of the annual World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum which is a global multi-stakeholder platform for facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines. WSIS Forums are co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD which a close collaboration of other agencies. The theme for the WSIS Forum 2019 is “ Information and Knowledge Societies for Sustainable...
Education and technology can play an important role in ending hunger and malnutrition in Africa once and for all. That is the view of leading experts in communications technology and food security, who will be attending a special session on malnutrition at this year’s eLearning Africa conference (...
Blockchain explained: A guide to one of the modern world’s greatest innovations Blockchain! What comes into your mind when you hear this word? Bitcoin, Crypto-currencies etc. Indeed there has been a lot of interest in this subject from many people interested in technology and development. An article by Michael Kern provides some background information of this technology, in this article he explains how exactly the technology came about, how does it work, and what industries is it reshaping? Below we attempt to summarize this article. What is blockchain technology and where did it come from?...
News Release as published on FAO Website 25 June 2018, Rome - The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and Pennsylvania State University joined forces to develop and launch an innovative, talking app - Nuru - to help African farmers recognize Fall Armyworm, a new and fast-spreading crop pest in sub-Saharan Africa, so that they can take immediate steps to destroy it and curb its spread. Fall Armyworm first appeared in Africa in 2016, in West Africa, and then rapidly spread across all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, infecting millions of hectares of maize, and threatening...