by Olaitan Ogunnote & Raimot Adewunmi - Undergraduate Research Assistants, ECV Ontario, SEDRD, University of Guelph Introduction While we might not yet be able to live on our red monochromatic, moon-like planetary counterpart, Mars, we could make our stay on the bright bluish-green Earth with hints of white, a little bit longer and more enjoyable through technology. Particularly, through technology that makes the world less hungry and the environment more conducive, in other words, more food sovereign . Therefore, what does this world of food sovereignty look like and how can technology...
The FAO e-Agriculture and Harvesting are inviting interested persons to attend the following webinar to be presented on the 25th of October 2018 at 16:00 (CEST) Rome Time [ Convert your time ] To attend kindly register here to receive attendance information and also to get the details of the recording after the event. Webinar details Title : Driving Financial Inclusion for Smallholder Farmers by Leveraging Satellite Data and Machine Learning Abstract There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers in the world. Only 7% have access to financing for inputs like improve seeds, fertilizer...
The growing world population means that food production will have to increase to meet the growing demand. ICTs are touted as one of the boosters and possible contributors to increased agricultural productivity. In a recent blog , it has been argued that the Internet of Things is one of such technologies to be watched. The Internet of Things in agriculture is construed as a “group of technologies that include soil sensors, cameras, weather stations and other technological gadgets that gather data about farming activities”. The data obtained is analysed by algorithms and other software and...
The Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart will request suppliers of leafy greens – lettuce, spinach and other greens to join its food-tracking Blockchain by the 31st of January 2019. In addition farmers, logistics firms and business partners have been mandated to join blockchain by 30 September 2019. This could be a turning point on the use of blockchain in the tracking of food and also in the food retail industry. This directives comes after 18 months of testing the blockchain system to trace berries, mangoes, chickens and other foods on the IBM Food Trust blockchain. Walmart joins other...
As CGIAR holds the Big Data in Agriculture Convention in Kenya this week, the question of data, big data and open data in agriculture is yet again rejuvenated. The link between farming and data has never been stronger than now. There are many efforts driving the data agenda in agriculture, which include FAO , GODAN , CGIAR , USAID programs , and many others. Data-driven agriculture But what is data-driven agriculture? And what does it mean for smallholder farmers? Perhaps the infographic by Grameen Foundation (for USAID Feed the Future) summarizes the issues ( click on image to download )...
The e-Agriculture community is now above 14,000 users . e-Agriculture is a global community of practice, where people from all over the world exchange information, ideas, and resources related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable agriculture and rural development. Becoming a member of e-Agriculture Community of Practice provides possibilities to: Connect with other community members and share experiences Follow news and blogs published on the e-Agriculture platform Shar e good practices in the use of ICTs in agriculture Learn about new digital trends...
Major new initiative aims to help low-income countries improve collection of agricultural data As published on FAO News 25 September 2018, New York - The lack of timely and high-quality agricultural data is handicapping efforts to implement the UN's sweeping Agenda for Sustainable Development, FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said today. This is why FAO is joining forces with a wide group of partners — including the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)* — to weave existing agricultural data collection...
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and its GODAN Action partners in collaboration with Agricultural Data Interest Group (IGAD) are pleased to announce an Open Data in Agriculture Workshop to be held during International Data Week in Gaborone, Botswana on 6 November 2018. The workshop will be part of a two-day meeting of the Agricultural Data Interest Group (IGAD) at the RDA Pre-Plenary meeting. It will provide an overview of open data in agriculture and nutrition and help participants to make better use or share open data. The workshop will provide users with the...
The CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture is where information becomes power: power to predict, prescribe, and produce more food, more sustainably. It aims to democratize decades of agricultural data empowering analysts, statisticians, programmers and more to mine information for trends and...
The Government of Kenya, the Government of Ghana, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation organized the high-level side...
The CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture is where information becomes power: power to predict, prescribe, and produce more food, more sustainably. It aims to democratize decades of agricultural data empowering analysts, statisticians, programmers and more to mine information for trends and...
The Government of Kenya, the Government of Ghana, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation organized the high-level side...