In most developing countries due to rural-urban migration, rural communities are losing young people and agriculture is robbed of the needed workforce. The result has been that many smallholder farms have more women and girls remaining on the farms providing bulk of the labour force. Advances in agricultural innovation are important to support rural livelihoods and are poised to support the role of women in our food systems. Furthermore, the digital revolution has changed the way we work and offers opportunities when implemented fairly. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in...
As the WSIS Forum 2019 , a multistakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the FAO Director-General Mr. José Graziano da Silva has delivered a video message to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and delegates ahead of the meeting to be held on the 8th to the 12th of April 2019. The message confirms FAO commitment to ending hunger through using digital technologies to bridge the rural-urban divide; and most importantly he pledged FAO’s commitment to WSIS and FAO's co-facilitation to the E-...
In an opinion piece on CNN Business , the WorldBank Group CEO and interim presidents noted that automation and artificial intelligence (and other disruptive technologies) could revolutionize the industrialized world, and with great potential to the developing world. O n her tweeter account , Ms Kristalina Georgieva noted in order to support Africa’s digital transformation, the WorldBank Group will invest $25 billion between now and 2030 and is aiming to mobilize $25 billion more from the private sector. How can African countries leapfrog themselves for this challenge? In the above mentioned...
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world...
In sub-Saharan Africa and indeed in most of the developing world, women form a greater part of the agricultural labour force. There is potential of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to include women fully in the agricultural systems. The recent ICT Update 90 focuses on Women and Digitization in Agriculture and chronicles the work that The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has done within the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). The interventions deal with CTA’s contribution to rural economies, the growing advancements in digitization and lessening...
The International Award “ Innovative Ideas and Technologies in Agribusiness ” is organized by UNIDO ITPO Italy in collaboration with the Future Food Institute . The international contest is aimed at identifying worldwide the most innovative ideas in the foodtech & agtech sectors from startups, think tanks, universities, incubators, research and technology centers, that could lead to social, environmental and economic improvements in Developing Countries. Applications must be received by 31st March 2019, at the following link: https://www.unido.it/award2019 The award ceremony will be held...
By Günther Feiler , Capacity Development Officer, FAO Rome, and Thomas Muenzel , Investment Support Officer, FAO Bangkok ( The article was originally published by the ICTworks and we reproduce for our community. All rights acknowledged) Experience has shown that substantial public investments in agricultural production, transport and storage infrastructure, combined with private on-farm investment are essential for promoting pro-poor economic growth, bringing people out of poverty and ending food insecurity and malnutrition. The FAO State of Food and Agriculture Report in 2012 found that the...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors...
There is a growing acceptance of blockchain use in food and agriculture. This comes as part of the growth of ICTs in the last decade and technology has promised to open many opportunities to overcome some of the challenges faced in agriculture. For example, technology can allow more inclusion, simplification of process within the agricultural systems, including on-farm and off-farm activities. In light of blockchains in agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) together with its partners have published three documents so far on blockchains. These publications are: Emerging...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors. The 2019 edition focuses on Digitizing Agriculture and will have three major themes,
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors...