Africa’s economy is based largely agriculture and most of them being smallholder farmers. One of the challenges these family farmers face is access to weather information and forecasting services. Lack of access to relevant weather information is due to lack of access of weather source information, dilapidated weather stations that fail to accurately provide reliable weather data, amongst many other reasons. Kukua is an initiative whose vision is to close Africa’s weather information gap by providing new weather station technology and improved weather forecast accuracy. Kukua seeks to...
In Kenya, in the region of Turkana County, a severe drought is threatening people's livelihoods and livestock. Agricultural production is close to none as the rainy season going from March to June remained a vain hope. The nearest borehole is sometimes walking days away and not all of the population is fit enough to make it, so many were forced to relocate. However, Turkana County happens to have a large source of ground water. The problem is that if a well breaks, the reparation time is too long. Repairs used to come after a notification through mobile phone, but the majority of villagers...
Webinar: Engaging African youth in agribusiness in a changing climate Date Wed, Aug 30, 2017 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CEST Description This webinar is a culmination of a month long online discussion organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CGIAR...
SatSure is a data analytics company which integrates satellite, weather, and IoT analytics with the agriculture sector in order to help farmer's financial security and crop insurance. India is facing severe consequences due to climate change, such as droughts and floods. In the agricultural sector many insurance companies fail to provide the farmers with fair and timely compensation for losses incurred. There is also a lack of transparency in fixing the fair price for the produce. According to 33-year-old Abhishek Raju, founder of SatSure, technology must be used to mitigate both farm and...
AACC' 17: International Conference of ICT For Adapting Agriculture To Climate Change Date November 22-24, 2017 Location Popayán, Colombia Description The International Conference of ICT for Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change (AACC'17) will be held at Popayán (Colombia) on November 22-24, 2017...
CGIAR launched the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, a new initiative that aims to convene researchers to use big data in order to help improve food security, resilience in the face climate change as well as encouraging rural development. Big data are immense stocks of information collected in computers worldwide, and it can be a potential resource for planning and decision-making. Applied to agriculture and rural development it can help give robust responses to some of the most important challenges of our time: climate change, food insecurity and environmental degradation. For this...
Papua New Guinea's Department of Agriculture & Livestock (DAL), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), among other partners working on ICTs for agriculture, met in Port Moresby on May 30th, 2017 to consult on the e-agriculture strategy for Papua New Guinea. The aim of the meeting was to advance in the implementation and adoption of ICTs in the agricultural sector. Watch the video report on the consultation: Credits: EMTV Papua New Guinea's farmers (which represent the majority of the population) have always...
The Yield is an Internet of Things (IoT) Australian product company that aims to use technology to improve yields in agriculture and aquaculture. The Yield combines wireless sensor networks and localised data to inform farmers and growers on the best decisions to make regarding their yelds. The Yield uses Sensing+, a microclimate sensing system for agriculture which measures data from different points around the farm and provides hyper local predictions based on the farm's growing conditions by using data analytics and artificial intelligence. Watch The Yield's presentation video: Credits:...
In a recent article on Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe explores how digital technology is poised at providing a solution to increase farm productivity in Africa. In this article he reviews the food challenges affecting Africa such as weather changes, rural-urban migration that deprives farming communities of young people and deforestation amongst many challenges. While African governments have employed many policy instruments to improve farm productivity, yields are still marginally improving. The article notes that African entrepreneurs are interested in how farmers work and how...
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...
Webinar: Engaging African youth in agribusiness in a changing climate Date Wed, Aug 30, 2017 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CEST Description This webinar is a culmination of a month long online discussion organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CGIAR...