A recent paper reports on a study where three complementary ICT-based extension methods – interactive radio, mobile SMS messages and village-based video screenings where used to enhance farmer’s knowledge and management of Fall Armyworm (FAW) in western Uganda. The findings show how complementary ICT-based extension campaigns hold a great potential to improve farmers knowledge and management of invasive species such as FAW. Citation: Tambo JA, Aliamo C, Davis T, Mugambi I, Romney D, Onyango DO, et al. (2019) T he impact of ICT-enabled extension campaign on farmers’ knowledge and management of...
In June, CTA published The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report, 2018-2019 which explained the agricultural transformation in Africa. The executive summary of this report has been published. The summary provides a glance of the Digital Agriculture in Africa statistics, includes the market opportunities, the D4Ag Solutions and various models that work in Africa. D4Ag in Africa at a glance : CTA With the right policies, innovation and investment, Africa’s agriculture could be transformed into a powerhouse not only to feed a growing population but to create decent employment for millions...
The world is facing an imminent challenge – the world population is expected to grow from 7.7 billion to 10 billion by 2050 ; today (with a population of 7.7) more than 820 million people are hungry globally. Does this mean that the world needs to produce more food to feed the hungry? Evidence seems to suggest that food production should increase. However, many of the farmers in the global south are aged and very few youths are replacing them. Can technology help in ensuring increased agricultural productivity? In a recent blog , Jean –Philippe Courtois , President at Microsoft Global Sales...
Scaling up innovations and solutions in agriculture was discussed in the September 2018 conference, Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions , organized by Purdue University, in partnership with the African Development Bank. The Scale Up Sourcebook is a collection of contributions at the said conference and also aims to capture methodologies for leveraging globally the technology and innovations designed to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods in the developing world. The publication distils the expertise, ground-breaking innovations, and examples of successful...
A recent paper has been published and examines the use of Artificial Intelligence in 'just-in-time' crop disease detection in banana. The paper reviews research towards the development of an AI-based banana disease and pest detection system using a deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) to support banana farmers. Banana is a popular fruit grown all over the world and a staple food in many developing countries. In many of these areas, traditional pest and disease identification approached rely on agricultural extension specialists; however, application of technologies such as Artificial...
The e-Agriculture team is launching a user survey to obtain feedback from the Community of Practice and interested users to better understand their needs, interaction on the platform and how content can be designed to meet their needs. The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete and it will be open until the August 31, 2019. The e-Agriculture Community of Practice and the platform is in the process of being studied with a view to a redesigned solution that closely meet the needs of the community. Technology also provides a potential to better achieve the reach and needs of our...
