In Summary ICTs are very useful in agricultural extension and advisory services and in facilitating reaching out to family farmers Extension and Advisory services play a crucial role in promoting agricultural productivity, increasing food security, improving rural livelihoods How have ICTs been applied in extension services M ost of the family farmers in developing countries live rural areas and are in most cases divorced from technology and vital agricultural support services needed to carry out farming activities. Extension and advisory services are relevant to smallholder farmers, who...
After a two-year ban of unmanned aereal vehicles for non-military reasons in Kenya, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has approved draft regulations on the commercial use of drones in the country. The law will be released soon, according to governemnt officials. Kenya is the second African nation after Rwanda to grant the permission to fly drones for commercial use. An article released in May 2016 by the Daily Nation newspaper, Kenya's largest, reported that more than 1,000 applicants were already seeking regulatory approvals to operate drone-based transport services in Kenya. Among...
Agricultural insurance is essential for smallholder farmers, as plots of land are small and the consequences of crop diseases and climate change effects can be disastrous. Yeld loss and damage monitoring and verification can be long and laborious task, causing huge delays in settlements. Although new technologies have been applied, drones, micro-satellites, digital photography can help improve the monitoring of crops and yelds for smallholders and insurance companies. Remote sensing can be a key tool for farmers to prove their crop and harvest loss to insurance companies. At the same time,...
The e-Agriculture is a platform of choice where individuals interested in ICTs and agriculture visit regualrly. Are you have a non-commercial workshop, conference or seminar in the areas of ICTs in agriculture? Do you target farmers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in agriculture? If yes, we can list your event in e-Agriculture events section. We are building a 2017 catalog of such events and we welcome your submission. These events could be in English, French and Spanish primarily or in any of the FAO/UN languages. Events Details To be included the event should have the following...
The Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) promotes evidence-based decision making by collecting and disseminating information on policy information through a freely accessible web-based tool. The FAPDA tool provides an electronic repository for food and agriculture policies in over 130 countries. The repository presents itself as a map with the different countries coloured according to the coverage of their policies. A free text search is also available. The policies in the repository can be filtered by Country/region , Date , Policy decision and Policy framework . For each...
Mercy Corps, in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, today launched AgriFin Accelerate in Zambia. The AgriFin Accelerate program is a six-year, USD 25 million program. The program seeks to address the financial inclusion gap for smallholder farmers (SHF) who lack access to affordable, accessible, demand-driven financial products and services that drive higher productivity and income for farm families. In Zambia, more than 70 percent of the population is engaged in, or derives its livelihood, from agriculture-related activities. The lack of access to financial services among farmers is...
A new open-access Nutrition Knowledge Bank has been created as part of a GSMA mNutrition initiative to help tackle malnutrition in Africa and Asia. The information will be shared through text messages, voice messages and factsheets. The project aims to reach 3 million people in 12 developing countries . Malnutrition is believed to be one of the main plagues in developing countries although it being a problem that can be tackled through information and knowledge dissemination. In the whole world, one out of three people suffer from some form of malnutrition. Poor health is just one of the...
In a recent news article, it was reported the South-Western Kansas (U.S.A) is dealing with a significant amount of drought, with 65% of the state affected. Farmers are paying a high price for this situation, but some of them have now begun to take action thanks to ICTs. To tackle the drought, farmers in Kansas have started to use soil moisture sensors, a tool to measure the volumetric water content present in the soil. With this technology, farmers can check how much water their crops get naturally and adjust their irrigation systems accordingly. The soil moisture sensors are useful in many...
Africa Open Data Conference 2017 Date 17-21 July 2017 Location Accra, Ghana Description The 2017 Africa Open Data Conference in Accra, Ghana is set to attract over 600 delegates drawn from all over Africa and the world at large. This auspicious event will push the leadership role of the private...
The Internet of Food & Farm 2020 (IoF2020) project investigates and fosters a large-scale implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) in the European farming and food sector. With a €30 million budget co-funded by the European Union, the project has the potential to bring a paradigm shift in this domain, by drastically improving productivity and sustainability - source . It will demonstrate the added value of smart webs of connected objects, that are context-sensitive and can be identified, sensed and controlled remotely in the agri-food sector. The project has started on January 1st 2017...
Africa Open Data Conference 2017 Date 17-21 July 2017 Location Accra, Ghana Description The 2017 Africa Open Data Conference in Accra, Ghana is set to attract over 600 delegates drawn from all over Africa and the world at large. This auspicious event will push the leadership role of the private...