The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) have published a new book on the application of Blockchain in the Agri-food industry. The publication comes after the spread of Blockchains application in a number of industries and sectors. Distributed ledger Technologies (DLTs) are poised to transform the global food industry and also the humanitarian work in food and agriculture. Some low hanging gains on the use of blockchain technology are efficiency gains along value chains, and improving trust, transparency and...
The Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition initiative (GODAN), the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft (KTBL) held an e-consultation on ethical, legal and policy aspects of open data affecting smallholder farmers. The forum took place on the e-Agriculture platform from 4th till 8th of June 2018.The purpose of the e-consultation was to solicit views from the community on issues affecting smallholder farmers in developing countries...
The CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agricultur e has announced “ The Inspire Challenge ” which calls upon partners, universities, and others to use CGIAR data to create innovative pilots projects that can be scaled up. The winning teams will receive $100,000 to put their ideas into practice and the teams will be given 12 months to implement small-scale proof of concepts pilots to demonstrate viability. “We’re looking for novel approaches that democratize data-driven insights to inform local, national, regional, and global policies and applications in agriculture and food security in real time...
The Digital Innovation to Tackle Climate Change Project was initiated in Senegal and Rwanda in December 2017 after the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). This MoU seeks to strengthen cooperation between the two entities and tostrengthen cooperation to respond to climate change and variability. The project is led by the Digital Innovation Unit at FAO. Through this project, FAO and WMO are joining forces: To enhance capacity for the countries to provide meteorological and...
FOSS4g2018 meeting will take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from the 27th of August to the 2nd of September 2018 and there will be a large GIS community in attendance. In this light, CGIAR, IFPRI, WeRobotics and Tanzania Flying Labs are organising a "Drones for Agriculture" Knowledge Sharing Day on Friday 24th of August in Dar es Salaam. Interested persons within the agriculture are invited to sign-up. Places are limited to 50 participants. Participants will be chosen based on their application. The event is free of charge, however travel & lodging needs to be paid by participants...
The application for the mobile for humanitarian innovation fund for Round 2 opened on the 16th of July 2018 and will close on the 10th of August 2018. Eligible e-Agriculture CoP members are encouraged to apply. The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The fundings will test new technical solutions, catalyse ideas to improve or transform institutional systems and to empower and assist individuals and communities affected by complex emergencies...
The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres announced the launch of a High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation . In a statement on the 13th of July, the UN Secretary General noted that, “The scale, spread and speed of change made possible by digital technologies is unprecedented, but the current means and levels of international cooperation are unequal to the challenge” The panel has a total of 20 members, representing a cross-section of expertise from Government, private sector, civic society, academic and the technical community. The co-chairs are representatives from the Bill...
Interested e-Agriculture CoP members are invited to the Botswana Research Data Alliance (RDA) Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) meeting in Gaborone, Botswana on the 5 -6th of November 2018. The Theme of the meeting is " Data Collection in Africa: State of the Art, Challenges and Solutions " Overview of the events On November 5 , the IGAD community members will organize a one-day meeting dedicated to the theme “How agriculture in Africa can benefit from data collection”. During this day, IGAD would like (i) to explore data collection practices in Africa and challenges associated to it...
Innovation lab gives youth the chance to unlock and accelerate social and economic potential of traditional agriculture sector This article was initially published by FAO China, and is reproduced for the e-Agriculture CoP 11/07/2018 . New initiatives can empower the traditional agricultural sector and enhance rural livelihoods, according to FAO China at the FAO Ag-Lab innovation incubation event, launched in Shijia Hutong Museum today in Beijing. Co-hosted by Tsinghua University, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and China Internet Information Centre (CIIC), the incubation event has...
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...