Location specific and timely advice to improve productivity and climate resilience among smallholder farmers Farmers in developing countries have a challenge of accessing localized weather data. Recently the e-Agriculture Team at FAO and aWhere published a Promising Practice that explains how aWhere can provide weather-based data and tips for smallholder farmers. aWhere delivers agricultural intelligence to farmers, crop consultants and researchers all over the world. How does aWhere achieve this? “The company aims at making agronomic and weather data available to farmers through...
Towards the end of 2017, the e-Agriculture Team at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) announced a call for Good and Promising Practices in Agriculture. We are happy to let you know some of the good/promising practices have been published and are available online via FAO publications . The good or promising practice are about the various use of ICTs for agriculture, livestock, fisheries or forestry or rural development in general. The following good and promising practices have been published, and some are still in...
The regional conference seeks to help farmers and other value chain actors to harness the benefits of technology and data, and drive the adoption of these digital tools by farmers. It bring together end users, service providers, disseminators, regulators, policy formulators, and technology...
A review of research on how information services based on mobile phone technology can improve the lives of smallholder farmers has found only patchy evidence of success. The study conducted through an exploratory literature review focused on the impact of mobile phone-enabled services on farmers. They looked at 23 studies of such services in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The study was conducted against a commonly held notion that these services hold a promise for developing world farmers and that these mobile services can improve their yields. Mobile phone services for farmers covered...
#HackAgainstHunger is hackathon challenge promoted by FAO and ITU ( and partners) based on end hunger and food security topics. Do you have an idea to ensure food security, decrease malnutrition or prevent famine? Join the #HacAgainstHunger! When? Sunday 18th and Monday19th of March 2018, Where? ITU Headquarters in Geneva Please note that two regional phases (Africa and Caribbean) will precede the global one, which will take place in Geneva on March 18th and 19th during the WSIS Forum 2018 75% of the world's poor live in rural areas and 2.5 billion people derive their livelihoods from...
The proliferation of smartphones and their usage has spread throughout the world, including in Africa. In Liberia, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has supported and funded the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) to train extension workers in the latest data collection technology. The Daily Observer reported that 24 extension officers, including 6 employees from the Liberia Institute for Geo-Information Services had a three-day training at the Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko District, Bong County. The attendees received a training on the...
The subject of technology and gender has intrigued many interested with ICTs in agriculture. GSMA recently published a report entitled, “ Mapping the mobile money gender gap: insight from Cote D’lvoire and Mali ”. One of the key findings of the report is that while there has been significant growth in mobile money transfer in the last ten years, there are still wide gender gaps in mobile money account ownership and usage. The report further notes that there is a need for a better strategy to target and reach more women with mobile money services. The study paints a comprehensive picture of...
The Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) was launched in 2007 as a dialogue platform that cuts across borders and disciplines in support of a world free of food insecurity and malnutrition. On the 10th of October 2017, at the FAO headquarters, the FSN Forum team held a luncheon to celebrate the 10 year of existence. Today the FSN Forum stands as one of the most inclusive, multilingual platform that hosts discussions related to food security and nutrition issues. The FSN approach to online discussions have attracted a wider range of stakeholders and members from the civic...
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...
The regional conference seeks to help farmers and other value chain actors to harness the benefits of technology and data, and drive the adoption of these digital tools by farmers. It bring together end users, service providers, disseminators, regulators, policy formulators, and technology...