Background As the world is still struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and its disruptive impact on agricultural value chain, the private sector and farmers in the Arab region are facing burdens on how to continue delivering along the agricultural value chain and ensure the continuity of supplies to consumers, for sustaining their livelihoods, from farm to fork. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) leads on this Zoominar session to highlight the role of the private sector in the use of innovation and technology and the potential role of the public-...
Artificial Intelligence VS Farmers: who can produce the best strawberries It’s man versus machine in a smart agriculture competition pitting top scientists and growers to see whether artificial intelligence or human experience will triumph in producing the best strawberries. The inaugural Duo Duo Smart Agriculture Competition, organized jointly by the China Agricultural University and Pinduoduo, will take place over four months in the plateau of Yunnan Province and see competitors from around the world come up with planting methods that are best suited for the local conditions, using either...
Globally, there are an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers -- and some 2.5 billion people living in smallholder farmer households -- who rely on agricultural production for their livelihood. These farmers feed 80% of the population in developing countries. By 2050 the world’s population is...
A one-size-fits-all approach to agricultural finance and insufficient resources make it difficult for smallholder farmers to become profitable, despite the pivotal role they play in agricultural production. Over the last four years, Grameen Foundation and Musoni Microfinance Kenya have built a...
Three panellists from Wageningen Economic Research, the social enterprise Moyee Coffee and the World Food Programme will discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with blockchain approaches when compared to existing business models. Organized by the FAO Technical Network on Sustainable...
The 14th International Conference on Precision Agriculture is being held in Montreal, QC Canada and is organised by the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) which is a non-profit professional scientific organization. The final Oral and Poster programs are posted on the 14th ICPA...
Keynote address at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture by André Laperrière , Executive Director, of the Global Open Data Initiative for Agriculture and Nutrition , GODAN and Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General, Copa - Cogeca 20th June 2018, Utrecht, Netherlands - The need for advancement...
Evidence have shown that technology has the potential to improve agricultural productivity. Specifically ICTs can help governments and developmental organizations to enhance food security and improve rural livelihoods through both knowledge and skills transfer. In most cases also improve the capacities of communities in agricultural productivity, pests control and easier access to markets. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) adopts innovations in information and communication technology (ICT) for agriculture and rural development. In a recent article by its President,...
Digital Technologies for Resilience was the theme of a workshop organized by FHI 360 in Bangkok with funding and support from Rockefeller Foundation and USAID . The workshop intended to create a space and exchange mat for professionals who are using digital technologies to enhance resilience. The other objective was to help participants to scale up the digital technology for resilience efforts. “The workshop enabled actual collaboration… several actual project collaborations took place –with exchanging of MoUs and project proposals” noted one participant. The programme in retrospect The two...
The flagship report," The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 " was launched on the 15th of September 2017 at FAO headquarters by FAO,IFAD, WFP, UNICEF and WHO, which marked an expanded partnership than the previous years. The major finding of the report is that after a prolonged decline, estimates indicate that global hunger increased in 2016 and affected 815 million people, and in some parts of the world hunger levels rose sharply - for example, with a famine declared in areas such as South Sudan in early 2017 and will alerts issued in northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen...