The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres announced the launch of a High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation . In a statement on the 13th of July, the UN Secretary General noted that, “The scale, spread and speed of change made possible by digital technologies is unprecedented, but the current means and levels of international cooperation are unequal to the challenge” The panel has a total of 20 members, representing a cross-section of expertise from Government, private sector, civic society, academic and the technical community. The co-chairs are representatives from the Bill...
Innovation lab gives youth the chance to unlock and accelerate social and economic potential of traditional agriculture sector This article was initially published by FAO China, and is reproduced for the e-Agriculture CoP 11/07/2018 . New initiatives can empower the traditional agricultural sector and enhance rural livelihoods, according to FAO China at the FAO Ag-Lab innovation incubation event, launched in Shijia Hutong Museum today in Beijing. Co-hosted by Tsinghua University, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and China Internet Information Centre (CIIC), the incubation event has...
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...
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 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...
Small holder farmers are increasingly being exposed to loss of crop due to climate related risks caused by climate change. In this light, Weather Based Crop Insurance Schemes (WBCIS) were created with an intention to provide protection to the farmers against adverse weather incidence. When a disaster strikes, one important aspect is assessing the loss at farm level. Can technology help, well we just learnt that the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed WheatCam, a picture-based insurance (PBI) app that farmers can download on their smartphones. The Indian...
Two days to discover agricultural robotics and exchange with pioneers in the field. The FIRA International Forum of Agricultural Robotics unites a wide range of agricultural players in order to exchange ideas and collaborate towards the future of agriculture. We aim to establish a community that...
African agriculture is faced by many challenges and yet technology – especially satellite and drone-assisted mapping technologies are poised to improve decision making for farmers and governments. However, since most farmers in Africa are smallholder farmers and mostly poor, what business models can be employed in collecting and processing key agricultural data? As part of the Innovation in Outcome Measurement (IOM) initiative, which was a tow year program to develop and test cheaper, better, and faster ways of collecting agricultural data – TechnoServe conducted a pilot project in Uganda to...