The NewTimes Newspaper in Rwanda reports the testing of mobile applications developed under the "Agricultural Services and Digital Inclusion in Rwanda" - which includes the four mobile applications - 'Cure and feed your livestock', 'eNtrifood', 'Weather and crop', and 'AgriMarketplace' developed in support of FAO. The testing was done on Tuesday, 7th of November 2017 in Rulindo District, Northen Province in Rwanda. The purpose of the testing was to get the feedback of the technology based on the field farming practices or challenges they face in the farming process. This feedback will help...
Africa’s economy is based largely agriculture and most of them being smallholder farmers. One of the challenges these family farmers face is access to weather information and forecasting services. Lack of access to relevant weather information is due to lack of access of weather source information, dilapidated weather stations that fail to accurately provide reliable weather data, amongst many other reasons. Kukua is an initiative whose vision is to close Africa’s weather information gap by providing new weather station technology and improved weather forecast accuracy. Kukua seeks to...
From 16 to 27 October, e-Agriculture Team organized the “introduction to drones in agriculture’ learning activity . This self-learning activity is intended to increase the appreciation of and knowledge on the use of drones in agriculture and rural development to members and followers of the e-Agriculture Community of Practice (CoP). During the second week of the activity participants reviewed academic literature on drones, including the ongoing research from Catheline Pieters on the monitoring of orchards using drones. The participants also had the opportunity to present their work during a...
The role of the mobile phone in accelerating Africa’s social and economic development was reflectedby the UCT Vice-Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture , titled “ ICTs for development: the good intentions of the mobile phone ”. This lecture was delivered by Professor Rivett is the first woman to be appointed as a full professor at her department. While this address was academic, it provides an insight into the history and uptake of technology within the development and in the African context, in various fields. Some key excepts from the lecture :- “ One of the things the mobile phone allowed for...
The ICT4Ag: The new technologies that will achieve food security, is part of an ongoing series around ICT4D, that is exploring new ICT innovations. The webinar will take place on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 6:00 AM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time). The participants will discuss the challenges of acceptance and distribution of those technologies in agricultural programs. The expert panel will discuss which ICT technologies are more useful to each participan't project. The factors taken in consideration are: research and big data, push vs pull technologies and user-friendly designs and sustainability...
The Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) was launched in 2007 as a dialogue platform that cuts across borders and disciplines in support of a world free of food insecurity and malnutrition. On the 10th of October 2017, at the FAO headquarters, the FSN Forum team held a luncheon to celebrate the 10 year of existence. Today the FSN Forum stands as one of the most inclusive, multilingual platform that hosts discussions related to food security and nutrition issues. The FSN approach to online discussions have attracted a wider range of stakeholders and members from the civic...
ICT4Ag: The New Technologies That Will Achieve Food Security Date Tue, October 17, 2017 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM PDT Description This webinar, ICT4Ag: The New Technologies That Will Achieve Food Security, is part of an ongoing series around ICT4D, that is exploring new ICT innovations. The participants...
A team under the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) has developed a mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to accurately diagnose crop diseases in the field. The team has won a $US100,000 award to help expand their project to help millions of small-scale farmers across Africa. The app provides advice on all major diseases and pests of root, tuber and banana crops, sends SMS alerts to farmers about potential diseases for their crops and pinpoints the location of the nearest agricultural extension support for farmers. “Smartphones are becoming more and more common...
Electronic Marketing Communication System (EMCS) is an sms service designed to improve communication and exchange for Maize, Soya Bean and Cassava in Cambodia. The service was designed to facilitate communication and exchange between farmers and traders in remote regions of the country. The EMS provided information on market price, pricing trends, potential buyers, product quantity and product quality useful to farmers and traders. The EMCS workflows The Electronic Marketing Communication System (EMCS) workflows were was described as shown below EMCS Workshop-Cambodia from STEM Education...
This announcement is as originally announced on AIMS AGRIS team at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) takes this opportunity to inform all interested parties that in September 2017 AGRIS has exceeded the threshold of 9 million records ! (9,025,192 records). AGRIS team continues to work on consolidating the AGRIS (INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY) platform and its services to provide better access and visibility to the information resources that are being disseminated through AGRIS. AGRIS content (which comes from than...
ICT4Ag: The New Technologies That Will Achieve Food Security Date Tue, October 17, 2017 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM PDT Description This webinar, ICT4Ag: The New Technologies That Will Achieve Food Security, is part of an ongoing series around ICT4D, that is exploring new ICT innovations. The participants...