The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations joins the rest of the world in celebrating the International Women's Day 2018. In Rome FAO, joins other Rome Based Agencies (RBAs) on a joint event hosted by IFAD under the theme, " Linked-in: empowering rural women and girls through media and ICTs ". This event will showcase and girls to transform their lives, as a central element in the efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable rural societies. Additionally, FAO has published the " 7 success factors to empowering rural women through ICTs: Using...
Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization and partners are organizing the East African Digital Farmers Conference. The conference will run from the 25 -27th of April 2018, at the Kenya Agriculture & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) grounds in Nairobi, Kenya . Image credit...
This announcement is shared for informational purpose to the e-Agriculture Community as announced by CTA in dgroups . CTA is looking for articles for the forthcoming issue of ICT Update , which will deal with blockchain in agricultur e Blockchain can be defined as a digital ledger that allows storage and exchange of information in a decentralized, immutable, autonomous and trustworthy manner. It allows actors engaged in a transaction to quickly share information, which can include financial data, without a central authority. No single actor can damage the records. Blockchain technology is...
CTA has published four success stories from East Africa that shows how ICTs are enabling farmers to access information which allows them to improve their farming practices. The stories detail how women’s lives are transformed, how ICTs have tapped into the unbanked, and how they are facilitating credit lines. Some brief notes Transforming the lives of women farmers - The first story tells of a project managed by the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET). "The Enhancing Access to Agricultural Information using ICTs in Apac District (EAAI) project used radio programmes and mobile phones to tackle...
Forests are part of our ecosystem and they cover 30% of the earth’s surface. Forests provides lumber, provides fuel to cook and boil water, provide nutritious food, offer medicines, animal fodder and homes for animals and are a source of income for many. Due to climate change and unstainable human practices forests are fast disappearing. In the SDG framework, deforestation is regarded as a major challenge and the Sustainable Development Goal 15 . Here are some facts and figures Forests Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood. This includes some 70 million indigenous...
Evidence have shown that technology has the potential to improve agricultural productivity. Specifically ICTs can help governments and developmental organizations to enhance food security and improve rural livelihoods through both knowledge and skills transfer. In most cases also improve the capacities of communities in agricultural productivity, pests control and easier access to markets. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) adopts innovations in information and communication technology (ICT) for agriculture and rural development. In a recent article by its President,...
FAO podcast published two podcasts that focus on what drones have to offer for agriculture. This part of Episode 7 of TARGET: Zero hunger . The Philippines Drone Pilot program In this first podcast, details the experience of FAO in using drones to gather detailed land and crop images for disaster preparedness. In this program about 25 FAO and government technical experts were deployed in the country to support drone missions and assess areas where farmlands were at risk from natural disasters. Click below and listen to the podcast or download transcript Interview with Brian McCornack- Kansas...
GFAR recently announced a series of webinars on farmers' rights to data and this is a follow-up to the face-to-face course on Farmers Access to Data that was held in Centurion (Pretoria), South Africa in November 2017. According to the GFAR website ,the webinars will be co-convened together with GODAN and CTA and will be conducted by the very same trainers who so successfully handled the course in Centurion: Dan Berne, Stephen Kalyesubula, Nicolene Fourie and Anneliza Collett. The two webinars will be held on the 22 and 28 February at 4pm CET , and a recording of each respective webinar will...
African Union publishes a Decision EX . CL/Dec. 986-1007 (XXXII), the Executive Council of the African Union (AU), requests the AU and Member States to harness drones for agriculture as one of three emerging technologies of relevance for African development. The recently held African Union saw its Executive Council of the African Union requesting the AU and Member States to harness drones for agriculture. Drones or the Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been in existence for decades and initially used in the military. Today drones have permeated the development world and has been applied in...
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...
Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization and partners are organizing the East African Digital Farmers Conference. The conference will run from the 25 -27th of April 2018, at the Kenya Agriculture & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) grounds in Nairobi, Kenya . Image credit...
