17 October. Rome . As a part of FAO’s work in transforming National Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services System (EAS), FAO’s Research and Extension Unit wishes to start a webinar series to raise awareness on various challenges and opportunities related to strengthening and reforming EAS. EAS are undergoing a deep transformation due to the changing environment and context in which they operate. The previous top-down approach where EAS would simply transfer the technology to producers, can no longer address modern challenges. It appears to be clear that EAS will - effectively support...
The WFP Innovation Accelerator has announced the following call, we republish for our members Do you have a project with the potential to solve hunger? If yes, then apply to the WFP Innovation Accelerator and receive up to 100,000 USD in equity-free funding, mentorship from industry experts and access to the world’s largest humanitarian organisation. The WFP Innovation Accelerator identifies, nurtures and scales bold solutions to hunger globally. WFP support innovators and external start-ups and companies through financial support, access to a network of experts and a global field reach...
FAO DIGITAL INNOVATION DIALOGUE: Session 6 - China’s Approaches and Experiences in Digital Agriculture and Digital Rural Area Abstract In recent years, China has made great efforts to promote the integration of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence with the development of agriculture and rural areas, vigorously develop digital agriculture, accelerate the development of e-commerce in rural areas, and actively promote informatization in rural areas. In 2018, the retail sales of e-commerce in rural areas in China reached 1.37 trillion yuan, the e-commerce business volume of...
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the importance of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls ( SDG 5 ). There is a need to leverage information and communication technologies (ICTs) to empower women and also for the achievement of all SDG Goals. The linkages between Gender and ICTs, and how FAO seeks to mainstream gender in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture and rural development were explored in a recent publication. However, the role of digital transformation and gender equality deserves further discussion within the...
This news item was first published in FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia Climate change adaptation and mitigation, rapid urbanization, increasing natural disasters, migration issues and unresolved humanitarian conflicts... how can digital technologies, data, related policies and legislation help address these complex challenges that today’s world is facing? More than 200 experts from 21 countries and 12 international organizations will meet starting today in Vrdnik, Serbia, to discuss this question and its particular relevance for the region at a conference titled “ Digitally...
The INNOVATION Quartely Update (2019 #3) has been released! The update provides an overview of highlights from the innovation activities of UN organisations affiliated with the UN innovation Network.There are very exciting news from the UN Community, below we review a few selection of the innovations The UN Innovation Network (UNIN) is an informal, collaborative community of UN innovators interested in sharing their expertise and experience with others to promote and advance innovation within the UN System. The UNIN is open to innovators from all UN Agencies as well as external partners and...
23 September 2019, New York and Rome - Putting the world's eyes in the skies to work to improve human lives and combat climate change is now easier thanks to an overhaul of the Food and Agriculture Organization' innovative geospatial monitoring system. A new version of SEPAL - System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring - has been developed that enables advanced forest monitoring from mobile phones. It also provides access to high-resolution data updated daily by a fleet of more than 190 satellites run by Planet , an integrated aerospace and data...
Background Today, there are more than 7 billion people on the planet, a figure that is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Overall food production needs to double in a relatively short period of time to meet food demand of the world's population. It is therefore an imperative for the different agricultural stakeholders to revolutionize the traditional agriculture. On 19 January 2019, Agriculture ministers from 74 nations adopted a number of resolutions stated in a political communiqué on digitalization in agriculture, which was issued during the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA...
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations together with the Pan African Farmers’ Organisation (PAFO) are pleased to call for applications for a new online course “Farm Data Management, Sharing and Services for Agriculture Development”. There is an exponential growth in data accompanying the digitalisation of agriculture through the proliferation of mobile technology, remote sensing technologies and distributed computing capabilities among others. The effective management of this data will open up new...
Scaling up innovations and solutions in agriculture was discussed in the September 2018 conference, Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions , organized by Purdue University, in partnership with the African Development Bank. The Scale Up Sourcebook is a collection of contributions at the said conference and also aims to capture methodologies for leveraging globally the technology and innovations designed to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods in the developing world. The publication distils the expertise, ground-breaking innovations, and examples of successful...
