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 Humanitarian UAV Network is inviting interested persons, entities and organizations within the International Humanitarian field to comment and contribute to the next version of the Humanitarian UAV/Drone Code of Conduct and Guidelines by the 1st of October 2018. Background to the call In May 2018, WeRobotics co-organized an Experts Meeting on Drones in Humanitarian Action . The Meeting amongst many other outcomes, revised the existing Humanitarian UAV/ Drone Code of Conduct considering developments in the use of drones in conflict zones and for cargo delivery. The sessions which were well...
An audio-visual podcast by MicroSave provides an insight into how Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and drone technology have a potential to improve access to finance for smallholder farmers in East Africa. MicroSave is an international financial inclusion consulting firm operating in eleven offices across Asia and Africa. While strengthening the capacity of local institutions, the firm designs and implement market-led solutions for financial services and most importantly designs a variety of financial inclusion models. In the above referred podcast entitled, “ Drones...
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 Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has announced the 26 finalists for the Pitch AgriHack 2018, where the 53% of the finalists are companies led by women founders or co-founders . The Pitch AgriHack was launched by CTA with the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and in collaboration with the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRA), Women in Tech Africa , Wennovation Hub (Nigeria) and Suguba Africa. The 2018 edition was held under the theme, Women entrepreneurs innovate for agricultural transformation in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The final...
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...
Reflections on the ICT-AGRI 2: ICTs and robotics for sustainable agriculture The use of new technologies in Europe has grown in the last decade, and this also true within agriculture. In fact, there is renewed expectation towards digitizing agriculture and food value chains. Can robotics adoption in agri-food systems change the current scene? Create new markets for data or lead to the creation of new global policies? ERA-NET ICT-AGRI Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda We visit the ICT-AGRI, which is an European Research Area NETwork (ERA-NET) which helps to coordinate European research...
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 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...