In this blog Oxfam publishes a report that gives a glimpse on the use of ICTs in humanitarian response. The report details activities, outcomes of the Scaling Humanitarian ICTs Networks (SHINE) project. Similarly e-Agriculture forum on ICTs and resilence provided use cases of ICTs in humanitarian situations in the agricultural domain Natural disasters such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, diseases epidemics and man-made crises such as conflicts, war and socio-economuc shocks still bedevil communities and affect agricultural activities. Are ICTs a tool in a humanitarian response...
The PRISE (Pest Risk Information Service) project forecasts pest outbreaks based on earth observation providing risk forecasts and early warnings in order for smallholders to take action and avoid crop losses. The project has been awarded £6.38 million (or 7,9 million USD) in funding over five years by the UK Space Agency . CABI CEO, Dr Trevor Nicholls, said, “An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s crops are lost to pests. This impacts the ability of smallholders living in poor rural communities to feed their families." The project will also be based on Plantwise, a CABI program combining a...
In Uganda, the spread of agronomical information is quite challenging, and the number of extension officers cannot meet the growing demand from farmers who often need immediate assistance. Thanks to innovations in information technology, mobile and web-based platforms are proving to be a huge help. m-Omulimisa provides smallholder farmers with real-time farming information and solutions written in local languages via mobile technologies. Farmers can use their phones to ask questions in languages that they understand, and receive understandable feedback from extension officers in the region...
There are about 500 million small-scale farmers on Earth, and most of them live on less than $1 a day. They’re often separated from larger population centers, or lack the means to educate themselves on specialized farming methods. Internet connections might be less common in the developing world, but mobile technology is pervasive. Today, 90% of smallholder farmers are able to access a basic mobile phone. In Africa especially, people have turned directly to mobiles instead of owning first personal computers. WeFarm is a peer-to-peer (P2P) knowledge sharing platform for small-scale farmers in...
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in conjuction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources and the Ministry of Youth and ICT has launched a new project called ' Agricultural Services and Digital Inclusion in Rwanda ". Mobile applications in this project This project is set to develop four mobile applications: "Cure and feed your livestock","eNtrifood","Weather and crop calendar"and "AgriMarketplace". The applications centre around the four themes - animal health and feed,weather and climate change adaptation services, nutrition and agricultural market. These Apps will be...
For poultry farmers in Bangladesh, avian influenza can be a devastating problem. The avian influenza, called H5N1 HPAI, is highly pathogenic and spreads very fast. Once the flu is spread out, birds can die in 5 to 10 minutes from it and the farmer sees its poultry farm devastated. This information fact sheet sets out to show how an SMS Gateway system developed by FAO has been used to improve rural communication, support animal disease crisis management and contribute to livelihood resilience for small-scale farmers in Bangladesh. Focusing on the case study of avian influenza in Bangladesh,...
The online discussion on, “The role of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the Sustainable Intensification of Crop Production (SCPI)” has officially ended. This has been a very fascinating discussion!. The sharp increase in the number of people joining the e-Agriculture platform over the course of the three weeks as well as the remarkable enthusiasm, with which the topic was discussed put in evidence the significant role of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop-based systems. Over the course of the discussion forum (06 March to 03 April 2017), 247 new...
ICTforAg2017 Date Friday 23 June 2017 Location Washington DC, United States of America Description ICTforAg2017 conference will bring together 300 thought leaders and decision-makers in agriculture and technology from the international development community and the private sector. With community-...
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 Plantwise Knowledge bank developed by CABI is an online and offline platform and app on plant health information and services. The website provides three different tools: search tool to identify pest problems, a search tool to find factsheets on pest problems, a map of pest distribution and a customized alert on pest news. The "Identify a Pest Problem" search tool invites you to select your location by country or region, then select a crop, and finally select the plant part affected. The results page shows the user a photo of the pest problem on one side and the symptoms on the other side...
ICTforAg2017 Date Friday 23 June 2017 Location Washington DC, United States of America Description ICTforAg2017 conference will bring together 300 thought leaders and decision-makers in agriculture and technology from the international development community and the private sector. With community-...