Do you know talented African web developers? As part of the ICT4D conference, John Deere is hosting a hackathon that seeks to improve African smallholder farmers' access to tractors. This application development competition is an opportunity for developers from across the continent to showcase their skills, connect with tech leaders from around the world, and develop tools to serve others. The winning teams will receive USD$2,000, USD$1,000, & USD$500 for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place respectively at the ICT4DConference , attended by technology leaders from around the world To learn more and...
A recently published pre-print article details the usage of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for environmental monitoring. While the article was written within the specific armpit of a project, it raises interesting issues on the use of drones for data collection, ecosystems and river monitoring. The usage of drones, UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) continues to be widespread within agriculture. Drones are used in cropping, monitoring plants, pests control and many other areas including forest and environmental monitoring. A recently published pre-print article by a group of scholars...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is hosting the 2nd International Symposium on Agroecology : Scaling Up agroecology to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is underway. The 2nd symposium has gathered around 400 policy-makers, practitioners, academics and public and private sector representatives to discuss policies and actions to support scaling up agroecology. The aim of the Second International Symposium is to identify needs and problems that countries face in the adoption and implementation of agroecology, to evaluate the impact of dedicated...
The ICT4D conference agenda has been published and with a number of presentation and talks in ICTs for Agriculture and the environment, browse the full programme here . The conference has more than 200 panels, keynotes, case studies, and workshops in core ICT4D disciplines. The agenda is rich with a variety of topics, some of the exciting topics for e-Agriculture CoP include:- Digital Agriculture: Scale and Sustainability through Government Partnership and Ownership Driving Digital and Financial Inclusion that leaves no one behind From Satellites to stalk borers: using earth observation to...
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 2018 African Youth Agripreneur Forum and AgriPitch Competition will be held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on 9 – 13 April 2018 under the theme “ Technologies and Innovations for Youth in Agribusiness ”. The Forum and the Competition will be co-hosted by the Government of Cote d’Ivoire and the...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has developed a new mobile phone application FAMEWS (Fall Armyworm Monitoring & Early Warning System) mobile app in English and French). The FAMEWS will help farmers and extension officers to collect and record information when scouting fields and checking pheromone traps for Fall Armyworm (FAW). The easy to use and intuitive app is meant to be used by countries affected by the FAW in Africa. Collected data can, once an internet connection is established, be transmitted to a centralized cloud by national FAW focal points before...
The Forum for the Future of Agriculture (FFA) has been contributing to the debate on agriculture and the environment in Brussels since 2008. The FFA is now firmly established as the premier event where agriculture and environment meet each year for an open dialogue This year the forum returns to...
mVAM at the World Food Programme and World Agroforestry Centre published a case study where Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) was used in Kenya to collect data on nutrition indicators. In most projects in the field, it is expensive to collect data in some cases in remote areas or conflict areas can also be difficult. CATI was used in rural areas to collect data on two of WFP’s corporate nutrition indicators – Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) and Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDDW). The project used the CATI to collect nutrition data as through the Face-to-Face (F2F) surveys...
The 2018 African Youth Agripreneur Forum and AgriPitch Competition will be held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on 9 – 13 April 2018 under the theme “ Technologies and Innovations for Youth in Agribusiness ”. The Forum and the Competition will be co-hosted by the Government of Cote d’Ivoire and the...