The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has published the digitalisation of African Agriculture Report . The report advocates for the digital agricultural transformation that can feed Africa. In his launch statement, the CTA Director, Michael Hailu stated, “at CTA, we know and understand the power to digitalise African agriculture. But we also understand that the evidence that will attract targeted investments to further develop D4Ag on the continent is lacking”. The emphasis towards digitalisation for agriculture (D4Ag) has been growing over the last decade. For...
The curtain came down for the FAO Digital Agriculture Transformation Semina r on the 13th of June at FAO headquarters. The seminar was attended by several hundred participants and included government ministers, representatives of civil society and the private sector, non-governmental organizations and others. The FAO Director General had the pleasure to invite Mr. Chang-Gyu Hwang, CEO, Korea Telecom (KT) who opened the seminar with an impressive summary of the possibilities that digital technologies have for agriculture, and what KT has done and is doing. The two day event saw the first day...
Cover photo: Irrigating rice fields in Sirajganj, Bangladesh. Photo: Haseeb Md. Irfanullah. This post was originally published by I NASP blog and is reposted here for information sharing purposes A research system is basically made up of four components: accessing, conducting, communicating, and utilizing research. While we often talk about the first three, use of our research in policy and practice is less frequently discussed in developing countries. Discussions at a recent workshop in Bangladesh about recent agricultural and biological science research projects revealed opportunities to...
There has been much hype about blockchain and their application in various sectors. In the agricultural domain, e-Agriculture has reported some of these initiatives. We came across an interesting blog by Sam on Disruptor, and provides interesting use cases of this technology in western and advanced farms. The technology has been applied in “managing warehouses, silos, and supply chains more intelligently, or utilized in the field as a tool to transmit real-time data about crops and livestock”. The following use cases are explained in detail, Overseeing Farm Inventory Enhancing Agricultural...
In sub-Saharan Africa and indeed in most of the developing world, women form a greater part of the agricultural labour force. There is potential of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to include women fully in the agricultural systems. The recent ICT Update 90 focuses on Women and Digitization in Agriculture and chronicles the work that The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has done within the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). The interventions deal with CTA’s contribution to rural economies, the growing advancements in digitization and lessening...
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has worked with Missions to integrate digital tools and technologies into Feed the Future activities since 2015, first through the U.S. Global Development Lab-led Digital Development for Feed the Future (D2FTF) initiative and now through the Bureau for Food Security (BFS). BFS works with DAI’s Digital Frontiers project, a buy-in mechanism that allows Missions to receive digital solutions for resilience and food security assessments as well as program, project, activity design, and implementation support. As part of this work, DAI-led...
International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food and Agriculture The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Government of Switzerland have announced the call for nominations for the 1st International Innovation Award for the Sustainable Food and Agriculture. The call is targeted at individuals, private companies or institutions to submit a nomination for the following categories before the 28th of February 2019: Award for Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems (USD 40 000) – Innovations that impact more than one level of the supply chain and strengthen the link...
Science and technology are transforming society and expanding the frontier of possibility. The field of biodiversity conservation can and should capitalize on the opportunities that emerging innovative solutions and technologies present. This side event will feature the UN Biodiversity Lab and...
The 20th and 21st of August was a hive of activity at the Kigali Conference Centre, where the youth from more than 40 countries, their ministers, government officials and international developmental partners led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations participated in the youth in employment conference. This conference was co-organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (Republic of Rwanda), the Food and Agriculture Organization and the African Union (AU). The conference comes as facts indicate that over 60% of Africa’s estimated 1,2 billion people are...
The Digital Innovation to Tackle Climate Change Project was initiated in Senegal and Rwanda in December 2017 after the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). This MoU seeks to strengthen cooperation between the two entities and tostrengthen cooperation to respond to climate change and variability. The project is led by the Digital Innovation Unit at FAO. Through this project, FAO and WMO are joining forces: To enhance capacity for the countries to provide meteorological and...
Science and technology are transforming society and expanding the frontier of possibility. The field of biodiversity conservation can and should capitalize on the opportunities that emerging innovative solutions and technologies present. This side event will feature the UN Biodiversity Lab and...
