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 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.
The WSIS Process has just announced the opening of submissions for the #WSISPrizes2019 . All stake holders are invited to submit #WSIS related projects during the period 2 July to 30th of November 2018. WSIS prizes are part of the annual World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum which is a global multi-stakeholder platform for facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines. WSIS Forums are co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD which a close collaboration of other agencies. The theme for the WSIS Forum 2019 is “ Information and Knowledge Societies for Sustainable...
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...
A conference focusing on effective approaches to scaling up agricultural technologies and innovations in the developing world.
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.