e-Agriculture Newsletter.April, 2017
FOCUS ON E-AGRICULTURE CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIESThe use of ICTs in agriculture continues to grow although it is hard to keep pace with new technologies and innovations. The e-Agriculture Community of Practice (COP) has held online forum discussions close to a decade now, and members of the Community have time and again stated that there are not enough capacity development resources available to enable stakeholders to learn about various ICT solutions, their advantages and challenges.
Therefore, the e-Agriculture team at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will develop several capacity development activities for the COP in the coming months. By strengthening capacity development, the e-Agriculture team of FAO aims at increasing the knowledge of its members on important new and emerging trends, innovations or strategic issues regarding the use of ICTs for agriculture and rural development.
The envisaged activities will include:
To kick start the activities e-Agriculture, FAO and CTA have launched a “Call for good and/or promising practices on the use of ICTs in agriculture”. Members and followers of the COP can submit a good or promising practice until the 1st of July. Webinars will be organized to talk about the methodology of experience capitalization and documenting good practices to support the development of the submissions by participants. The choosen topics for webinars will be approached in a very practical way – going beyond the bigger concepts and providing participants with insights and tools that are useful for improving smallholder farming. The e-Agricultrue team will work with existing and new partners. Do you have suggestions for topics and speakers? Contact us E-FORUMSIn this section find out the running forum(s) on offer in the e-Agriculture Forum discussions. |
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Starting on the 26th April a new forum discussion on "experience capitalization and good or promising practices on the use of ICTs in agriculture" is open. This forum is organized by FAO and The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the e-Agriculture Community of Practice (CoP). This is part of the “Call for good and/or promising practices on the use of ICTs in agriculture” and allows participants to ask question on the methodology of the call. The forum on "experience capitalization, good and/or promising practices on the use of ICTs in agriculture" is ongoing from the 26th of April to the 31st of June 2017. To participate in this and any other forums on e-Agriculture, you will need to be a registered member of the e-Agriculture Community. |
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The following is a selection of the news and ICT activities from e-Agriculture partners. The full listing of e-Agriculture partners can be found here |
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| The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) | |||||||||||
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CTA supports drone operations in Benin, DRC, Ghana, Tanzania and Rwanda CTA has established a supporting centre for drone operations in Benin, DRC, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. CTA is partnering with a French Company Airinov in this project. Drones are used in the management of crops, fisheries, forests and other natural resource-based activities within farming activities. Read more CTA launches a handbook, "ICT Agripreneurship Guide – A Path to Success for Young ACP Entrepreneurs" CTA launches the handbook that relays its experience of working with young people in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.The book was launched at the African Agripreneurs Youth Forum (AYA Forum) in Ibadan, Nigeria. Read more |
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| The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) | |||||||||||
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WSIS Prizes for 2017 345 ICT success stories from around the world were nominated for the Online Voting Phase (30 March – 30 April) following a comprehensive review by the Expert Group of 467 submitted projects submitted by the WSIS Stakeholder community. The sixth edition of the WSIS Prize contest set a new record of global multistakeholder engagement in implementation of WSIS Action Lines for SDGs. Read more All roads leads to the annual WSIS Forum 2017 The WSIS Forum is a global multi-stakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for Advancing sustainable development. The Agenda and Program of the WSIS Forum 2017 is being designed in collaboration with the multi-stakeholders on the basis of official submissions received during the Open Consultation Process on the thematic aspects and innovations of the format of the WSIS Forum 2017. The preliminary results of the open consultations are here. (source, WSIS Flash, March 2017) |
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ICT RELATED NEWS FROM FAOThere are a number of ICT related projects and solutions in agriculture that the FAO has reported in the previous weeks. Browse this months selection below. |
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FAO develops a new tech app to boost national agric targets in Rwanda 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". This project is set to develop four mobile applications: "Cure and feed your livestock","eNtrifood","Weather and crop calendar"and "AgriMarketplace". Read more
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Using remote sensing to track water productivity The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a publicly accessible near real time database (WaPOR) using satellite data that allows monitoring of agricultural water productivity. The WaPOR monitors and reports on agriculture water productivity over Africa and the Near East. The database uses satellite data to help farmers achieve more reliable agricultural yields. Read more |
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Remote sensing: monitoring the Cash for Work Programme. Information factsheet In order to enhance its capacity to observe large swathes of territory on a regular basis, as well as viewing otherwise inaccessible areas, SWALIM developed a remote monitoring system using remotely sensed data. Remote Sensing (RS) is the ability to capture and analyse information from the earth’s surface from a distance. The system was developed in large part to address the issue of lack of access due to insecurity. Read more |
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HIGHLIGHTSBelow we highlight a selection of news published on e-Agriculture, these include news articles on ICTs, activities in the agriculture and rural development. The full news listing can be read here.
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SELECTED ICT PUBLICATIONSBelow you will find selected publications in ICTs related to agriculture, click and browse below |
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E-Agriculture in Action Abstract: |
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Success stories on information and communication technologies for agriculture and rural development Abstract: |
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Case study on the use of ICTs in the management of rural groundwater in China Abstract: |
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e-AGRICULTURE INTERVIEW |
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Following the forum on The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system (mainly fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers) we caught up with Innocent Chamisa - the co-moderator from the Rural and Urban Crop and Mechanization Systems Team (AGPML) and asked him a few questions on the just ended forum. Follow the interview here |
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The scope of the e-Agriculture Newsletter is to bring under the attention of the e-Agriculture community recent news, events and achievements in the field of ICTs and agriculture. If you have any contribution, suggestion, or need assistance with the newsletter, please contact us at [email protected]. You received this message because you are subscribed to the e-Agriculture Newsletter |
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