A recent article by Business Insider points out that Internet of Things (IoT) is on the rise in agriculture. The current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050, according to the UN . The world will consequantly need to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2006 in order to feed the growing population of the Earth, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Farmers will need to turn to new technologies to meet the growing demand for food production in the world. Internet of Things is the internetworking of physical devices that have...
Nano Ganesh - a mobile based remote control for water pumps and water tanks - developed by the Ossian Agro Automation , will be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress , Barcelona, Spain, taking place from February 27th to March 2nd 2017. The electronic device will be part of the Mobile for Development in the Innovation City in the Mobile World Congress. GSMA has constructed a small grass plot irrigated by sprinklers controlled live by visitors with a mobile phone with the help of Nano Ganesh device. Nano Ganesh is a GSM Mobile based remote control system exclusively for the use with water...
One of the main issues farmers face is the lack of data on their land and crops, and the same thing could be said of the national level. One solution for this are ICT toold which provide cheap, fast and reliable information on crops and yelds both to farmers and researchers or governements. AgriNeTT is an e-agriculture project that focuses on empowering the agriculture sector through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). AgriNeTT built an Agriculture Open Data Repository that houses different data sets from institutions and associations, including farm level production...
After a two-year ban of unmanned aereal vehicles for non-military reasons in Kenya, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has approved draft regulations on the commercial use of drones in the country. The law will be released soon, according to governemnt officials. Kenya is the second African nation after Rwanda to grant the permission to fly drones for commercial use. An article released in May 2016 by the Daily Nation newspaper, Kenya's largest, reported that more than 1,000 applicants were already seeking regulatory approvals to operate drone-based transport services in Kenya. Among...
In a recent news article, it was reported the South-Western Kansas (U.S.A) is dealing with a significant amount of drought, with 65% of the state affected. Farmers are paying a high price for this situation, but some of them have now begun to take action thanks to ICTs. To tackle the drought, farmers in Kansas have started to use soil moisture sensors, a tool to measure the volumetric water content present in the soil. With this technology, farmers can check how much water their crops get naturally and adjust their irrigation systems accordingly. The soil moisture sensors are useful in many...
Learn about how drones can be used in the humanitarian and development sectors by joining the webinar below. Drones have been used in agriculture and other fields, drones play an important role in mapping activities, damages assessment and facilitate the search and rescue operations. Date & Time Wednesday, February 22, 2017 18:00 CET Duration 1 hour 30 minutes Description How to use drones in the humanitarian sector? Mapping aereas of natural disasters and assess the damage on facilities is an essential part of the emergency response and it can be done thanks to drones. These tools can...
Photo credits: Young Africa Works This is the title of a blog post by Brian Bosire, founder of UjuziKilimo , an agricultural technology company that brings affordable precision farming to smallholder farmers in Kenya, faces the issue of technology adoption among smallholders in Kenya. Although the vast majority of the population in the country is young (60% of the population is under 30), the average age among farmers is 60. The article points out that at such an old age, farmers are much less likely to adopt new technologies for their farming practices. At the same time, young people are...
One of the main challenges for development of smallholder farmers' livelihoods is access to market information and financial services. Smallholder farmers are the most underserved group in the world by financial services, with women and youth at a particular disadvantage. Arifu is a platform that provides customer capability-building through mobile technology. The Kenya-based platform tests, refines, and hosts content developed by various educational organizations via SMS on mobile phones. Arifu has a team of digital learning experts who work with providers to design and develop behaviorally-...
KrishiSuchak is a WhatsApp-like app developed by Bangalore-based startup Nubesol Technologies to permit smallholders to message agricultural scientist to ask them for advice on their yields, thus eliminating spatial barriers between extension services. Farmers can send their queries either as text, a photo or a record of their voices to the extension officers. Farmers can now get advice via Krishi Shuchak from agronomists by sending only a picture of the damaged crop. The scientist then responds to the query by identifying the problem and then giving advice on the pests to use in order to...
Family farmers need information and technology tools that can help them thrive and feed a growing population, with challenges like climate change and natural resource scarcity making agriculture more knowledge-intensive, according to FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. "Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can have a profound impact on the efficiency, resilience, and inclusion of poor family farmers," Graziano da Silva said. This is why FAO is pushing ahead with a digital strategy that aims to support the world's most vulnerable through knowledge sharing and bottom-up...
