E-Agriculture

The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system (mainly fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers)

Forum

The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system (mainly fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s Rural and Urban Crop and Mechanization Systems Team (AGPML) and the E-Agriculture Team, (OPC) have organised the online forum discussion themed, The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system. This forum will take place from 06 March to 27 of March 2017 on the E-Agriculture Platform.

This forum on ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based systems (mainly on fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers) is part of broader discussion that aims to present the ongoing evolution in Agriculture and Horticulture as a continuous trend towards the goal to “produce more with less”. The ICTs and emerging technologies in agriculture promises to be a good arsenal in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. The role of ICTs in SCPI is likely to gain more and more importance in horticulture as well.

This forum seeks to encourage and gather success stories in the application and use of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop production systems. These technologies include, but not limited to, mobile phone technology, geographic information systems, remote sensing, precision and other innovative smart farming technologies. In this discussion we want to encourage you to share motivations for adopting innovative ICT technologies in Horticulture crop based systems, your experiences, lessons learnt and challenges encountered as well as the way forward in ensuring that both smallholder farmers and commercial farmers worldwide benefit from these ICT innovations and technologies in SCPI of horticulture based systems.

Participating in the Forum

This forum will take place from 06 March to 27 of March 2017. The Forum is structured into three discussion questions and which will be introduced at weekly intervals. Participants are free to post related comments within each respective week.

Please note:

Mr. Wilfried Baudoin : Senior Agronomist /Horticulture Specialist - Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO- Retiree)  will open the discussion with a brief introduction to “ICTs in Horticulture”.

This forum will be moderated by

  • Alison Hodder, Rural and Urban Crop and Mechanization Systems Team (AGPML), FAO of the United Nations
  • Luigi Damiani, Rural and Urban Crop and Mechanization Systems Team (AGPML), FAO of the United Nations
  • Innocent Chamisa, Rural and Urban Crop and Mechanization Systems Team (AGPML), FAO of the United Nations
  • Imma Subirats, Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division (OPC), FAO of the United Nations
  • Thembani Malapela, Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division (OPC), FAO of the United Nations

Subject Matter Experts 

  1. Dr Wilfried Baudoin -Senior Agronomist /Horticulture Specialist- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO- Retiree)
  2. Dr Azzam Saleh Ayasa - Head of Programme Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) │West Bank and Gaza Strip Mount of Olives .Jerusalem.
  3. Dr Simone Sala - - ICT-4- Agriculture and Environment Expert –FAO, he focuses on the research and practice of applying ICT to sustainable development. He worked with universities (Columbia University, MIT IDI, UniMi, USI-Lugano), NGOs, and Italian Development Cooperation in Africa, Asia, Caribbean and Middle East.

Case Study Contributors

  1. Mr Hasib Ahsan - (Case study provider) – Current Large Scale Projects (ICT4D) 
  2. Mr Keron Bascombe, (Case study provider) Agricultural Blogger, creator and editor of the blog Tech4agri.com, a small startup that functions as a social enterprise that seeks to assist young persons in accessing up to date info topics that related to Caribbean agriculture. – Trinidad and Tobago- Country representative in the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) Steering committee.
  3. Mr Erick Zvavanyange, (Case study provider) is the Country representative under the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development.