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...
BBC news reports that digital technology from apps to blockchain technology are opening new ways for farmers and smallholders to new ways of doing business. The featured article focuses on one farmer, Take Muhammed Adams who is a cocoa farmer attested that technology run by commodities giant Olam has helped him improve his productivity and pest management. The case of Olam is previewed as an avenue for digital initiatives used in agriculture, and they have done so for the past 18 months. Olam apps allow farm products to be tracked from the farm to the markets and allows farmers to check cocoa...
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 e-Agriculture Community is invited to participate to the ‘ Youth Employment in Africa as a Solid Solution to ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa ’ online discussion hosted on FSN Forum Africa. Members in Africa and/or who work or are knowledgeable to the issues under debate are welcome to participate. The discussion is part of the conference " Youth Employment in Agriculture as a Solid Solution to ending Hunger and Poverty in Africa: Engaging through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Entrepreneurship ". This online discussion is held to collect views around the three...
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 conference aims to foster an exchange among stakeholders on knowledge and best practices regarding the interfaces between agriculture, youth employment, entrepreneurship, ICT innovations, leading to prioritizing interventions going forward.