The Feed the Future initiative and the Challenge Prize Centre and partners , launched the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize , to stimulate usage of digital tools and approaches to provide solutions to help combat the fall armyworm The Fall Armyworm has ravaged the crops in sub-Saharan Africa and mostly affected maize, although it can feed on other crops such as rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, cotton and vegetable crops. The Food and Agriculture Organization launched a guide that seeks to guide efforts in tackling the FAW in Africa and also a dedicated portal to support the fight against the FAW...
It is widely believed that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will change the world, but how much are those innovations already contributing to improving the world? This webinar (part of an ongoing series around ICT4D) will explore how AI and machine learning tools can be applied and...
Today the 29th of March to the 30th of March begins the UNESCO/ITU annual flagship ICT in education event surnamed ‘Mobile Learning Week’. The 2018 edition is held under the theme, “ Skills for a connected world ” and will examine the skills needed in and for a connected economy and would also focus on digital skills and competencies. Mobile learning week brings together "experts practitioners and policy-makers from around the world to share ideas and best practices on ways to use ubiquitous mobile technology to support learning for all, particularly disadvantaged communities"- UNESCO news ...
WSIS Prizes 2018 winners have been published by WSIS. These winners represent the respective 18 WSIS Action lines, as outlined in the Geneva Plan of Action. The specific category winners can be read here The E-Agriculture Category In the E-Agriculture projects are covered by the Action Line C7: E-Agriculture and 27 projects were nominated. From the 27 projects, 5 were nominated as Champions in the E-Agriculture Category. These are, Hushu Smart Agricultural Center IoT project , Jiangsu post & telecommunications planning and designing institute Co, Ltd CHINA eSAP: a complete ICT Solution...
In developing countries, there is little smallholder farmers can do to protect themselves from shock. When faced with unexpected volatility, they often turn to negative coping mechanisms like selling assets, reducing meals, or pulling children out of school. To address this, Digital Development for...
In January, l attended the webinar on Blockchain for Development, which was hosted by NETHOPE solutions. With the cryptocurrency buzz and the bitcoin bullish behavior l was curious to learn about this new technology and how it is applied in development and also how it can be assimilated within food and agriculture. The webinar title was “ Blockchain for Development: Moving from Hype to Reality ”. This was the fifth of the ongoing ICT4D webinar series by the NetHope community What is blockchain? It is a shared ledger that records the history of transactions -It cannot be altered without...
The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has published a policy brief that emphasize the importance of weather data, and its derived services for agriculture and nutrition and challenges in dealing with weather data value chain. Farmers need access to accurate and localized weather information to make evidence based farm management decisions which includes when to plant or to apply fertilizer. The Policy brief outlines the benefits of open data and specifically offer example where open data is useful within the farming practices. However, for weather data to be of...
The International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) headquarters was a busy location with more than 2,500 ICT experts from around the world arriving for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The theme of WSIS Forum 2018 is ‘Leveraging ICTs to Build Information and Knowledge Societies for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ’ and seeks to explore ways and possibilities that can help meet the sustainable development challenge. The UN Secretary General Mr. António Guterre set the meeting tone when he said, ‘in today’s digital world Internet access is imperative,...
The AGRIS Team at the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) , together with the Information Training & Outreach Center for Africa (ITOCA ) , are pleased to invite you to attend a FREE online Webinar on: AGRIS for Agricultural Information Data providers Details of the Webinar Title AGRIS for Agricultural Information Data providers When: Friday, 6 April 2018 - 1400 – 1445 Hrs SAST ( South Africa Time to Local Time Conversion ) Target Audience The webinar is open to Existing and Potential Agricultural Information Data Providers in Africa Participation : Anyone...
It is widely believed that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will change the world, but how much are those innovations already contributing to improving the world? This webinar (part of an ongoing series around ICT4D) will explore how AI and machine learning tools can be applied and...
