The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s Rural and Urban Crop and Mechanization Systems Team (AGPML) and the e-Agriculture Team, (OPC) are glad to announce the upcoming online ‘forum’ discussion themed, “ The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system ”. This forum on ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based systems ( mainly on fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers ) is part of broader discussion that aims to present the ongoing evolution in Agriculture and...
Mobile money is a service that allows monetary value to be stored on a mobile phone and sent to other users via text messages. Mobile money was first introduced in South Africa and the Philippines about 10 years ago. In Kenya, this service was introduced in March 2007 and was called “M-PESA” (M is for mobile, “pesa” is Swahili for “money”), which became the country’s dominant mobile money service. M-PESA has since been celebrated internationally as an innovation that can bring the unbanked population into the formal financial system, with associated impacts on economic well-being and welfare...
The market-led, user-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service (MUIIS) Service Bundle was officially launched at the CTA Uganda country office on 8 March 2017. MUIIS is an innovative project that harnesses the power of satellite data to support extension and advisory services to farmers in Uganda. The MUIIS Service Bundle consists of a series of context-specific weather alerts, agronomic tips and index-based insurance throughout the season and covers four agricultural commodities: maize, beans, sesame and soybeans. To access these services farmers must be profiled and once profiled, dial short...
March 21 is the International Day of Forests (IDF) and was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012.On this day, the world celebrates and raises awarenes of the importance of all types of woodlands and trees in sustaining livelihoods. The management of forestry resources has also been reinforced by the United Nations, for example,sustainable development goal (SDG) 15 aims to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”...
The World Summit Awards announced its 40 winners of 2016 selected out of 451 submissions. The different winners represent a diversity of innovating mobile applications from around the world and accross different sectors: health, education, refugees, culture and of course agriculture. Among the 40 selected submissions there are a few specific agriculture oriented applications. Click on the links to learn more about the different projects. Farmdrive : Farmdrive unlocks financial services for over 50 million smallholder farmers in Africa. Farmdrive aims at closing the information gap that keeps...
The forum discussion on The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based systems ( mainly on fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers) is still on-going. Below we provide the summaries for the second week, you can read the summaries for the first week here . The question for week 2 was:- Do you have any concrete examples of successful use of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop based systems? Summary of participation As envisaged, this was yet another interesting and exciting week of learning, a number of promising and...
The forestry sector plays an essential role in Vietnam's economic development. About 25 million people are living in or near forests, particularly in mountainous regions, with many of them being poor and belonging to ethnic minority groups who depend on forests. Reliable data on the soil and water protective function of forest can help sustainable forest management for water security and sediment- and water-related disaster resilience in developing countries. Application of modern ICT offers huge benefits in terms of improved cost-effectiveness and transparency in forestry. Finland has been...
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) , agriculture sector accounts for more than half of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and over 70 per cent in East African Community (EAC). But there is an issue threatening agricultural crops and practices more than any other these years: climate change, and the category most affected by this are smallholders farmers. Smallholders, who have learnt to plant and cultivate their crops according to ancestral knowledge, are now confronted with an issue which is much bigger than them and which they cannot control. In...
Vision The vision of the Ministry is a modernised agriculture culminating in a structurally transformed economy and evident in food security, employment opportunities and reduced poverty. read more at www.mofa.gov.gh Mission MOFA’s Mission is to promote sustainable agriculture and thriving agribusiness through research and technology development, effective extension and other support services to farmers, processors and traders for improved livelihood. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) Information Communication and Technology Unit has implemented the E-Agriculture Programme which is...
Smart agriculture is essential in tackling many of smallholders problems with their cultivations and for their development. Smart agriculture is an approach that helps to guide actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security. Agriculture sector accounts for more than half of total employment in South Asia, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) . The Punjab province in Pakistan has 5.2 million farming families and 28 million acres of cultivable land spanning over 23,000 villages. Given the enourmous...
