The FAO Technical Network on Sustainable Crop Production and Agroecology will hold a Seminar on FAO’s Farmer Field Schools programme and Global Platform on Wednesday in FAO HQ with remote participation online at http://www.fao.org/webcast/en/ . All interested e-Agriculture CoP members can participate remotely The Farmer Field Schools (FFS) was pioneered by FAO in 1989 as an approach to integrated pest management in rice production in Asia. The advantage of the FFS is that they offer a hands-on learning that allows agricultural knowledge to be applied to promote sustainable agriculture...
Does your agricultural ministry still use paper for filing documents and submissions? How can technology help? The e-service support to farmers in Latvia is a good example of how technology can help in these situations. The Electronic Application System (EAS) of the Rural Support Service of the Republic of Latvia was created to electronically submit different types of applications for EU and Latvia’s state support for agriculture, fisheries, forestry, rural areas development, fishermen and rural entrepreneurs. The EAS system held in administration of the ministry and the implementation of...
Image credit : Panos/SciDev.Net Ethiopian herders have been provided the automated weather stations which are providing them with reliable climate information; armed with this information they can weigh up risks and make preventative decisions – reports SciDev.Net . The Automated weather stations (AWS) are reported to be part of the Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) project led by the NGO Farm Africa in three Ethiopian regions which are seeing an increase in climate variability. A total of 25 solar –powered AWSs have been installed since 2015.There are other challenges those that the MAR...
Quick Read Gender imbalance exists with women and girls most affected Technology, ICTs in particular, promise to leverage farming practices Examples of projects where ICTs have been used by women in agriculture In most developing country due to rural urban migration and other reasons, agriculture is depleted of the needed workforce. In essence, the result is that many smallholder farmers have more women and girls remaining on the farms providing bulk of the labour force. At the higher level of development, it has been acknowledged that gender inequality persists worldwide, and this normally...
Join us for our next e-Agriculture webinar on cross-sector partnerships in ICT4Ag with Mercy Corps presenting the ZFU Ecofarmer Combo. When: Wednesday 6 December 2017 at 2 PM UTC 3 PM Central European Time 4 PM Zimbabwe Where: Live webinar on Adobe Connect: register here to receive instructions The...
Join us for our next e-Agriculture webinar on cross-sector partnerships in ICT4Ag with Mercy Corps presenting the ZFU Ecofarmer Combo. When: Wednesday 6 December 2017 at 2 PM UTC 3 PM Central European Time 4 PM Zimbabwe Where: Live webinar on Adobe Connect: register here to receive instructions The ZFU Ecofarmer Combo is a bundle of services developed by Econet, the largest Mobile Network Provider in Zimbabwe, and the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, with the support of Mercy Corps. It was one of the best promising practices submitted for the e-Agriculture “call for good and promising practices”...
Farmerline is a social software company with the mission to transform millions of farmers into successful entrepreneurs. Farmerline connects farmers to markets, finance, weather forecast, new farming tips, inputs dealers and equipment services. Farmerline has an information service that sends SMS and voice messages on weather forecasts, market prices, new farming techniques, agrochemical applications, and finance directly to the mobile phones of farmers in local languages. Through their mobile phones, farmers can also connect to global markets and buy farm inpunts and services. Farmers using...
A team under the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) has developed a mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to accurately diagnose crop diseases in the field. The team has won a $US100,000 award to help expand their project to help millions of small-scale farmers across Africa. The app provides advice on all major diseases and pests of root, tuber and banana crops, sends SMS alerts to farmers about potential diseases for their crops and pinpoints the location of the nearest agricultural extension support for farmers. “Smartphones are becoming more and more common...
Esoko, the platform that sends market prices and agricultural tips to farmers will soon retire its brand. After having begun with professional tips sent to farmers through SMS, the Esoko team started to explore innovations on mobile finance for smallholder farmers. In November 2016, Esoko developed a mobile commerce platform that allows farmers to save and borrow toward the purchase of inputs and to sell their crops. Two very different products were now developed, and the team started to face the first challenges. "Our limited management resources were being stretched thin and neither...
Wikifarmer is the greatest user generated online farming library. Its mission is to help all farmers across the globe to find valuable information regarding their existing or potential crops and livestock. Through the information it provides, Wikifarmer aims to give practical solutions to farmers. Contributions can be provided from professional or amateur farmers, beekepers, gardeners and professors sharing their knowledge and best practices. Users can submit a new article, edit an existing article, add pictures or videos, request a new article, ask a question about a related issue, or just...
Join us for our next e-Agriculture webinar on cross-sector partnerships in ICT4Ag with Mercy Corps presenting the ZFU Ecofarmer Combo. When: Wednesday 6 December 2017 at 2 PM UTC 3 PM Central European Time 4 PM Zimbabwe Where: Live webinar on Adobe Connect: register here to receive instructions The...