e-Agriculture Newsletter. July, 2017
FOCUS ON WORLD SUMMIT ON INFORMATION SOCIETY FORUM (WSIS) 2017 IN REVIEW
The curtain of this year's World Summit on Information Society Forum (WSIS Forum) came down on the 16th of June 2017. The WSIS Forum, was co-organized by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO and UNCTAD. The theme of this year’s edition was, “Information and Knowledge Societies for SDGs". WSIS is the largest annual meeting of the 'ICT for development' according to ITU. High-level video addresses were offered by heads of UN Agencies from ITU, UNIDO,WIPO, ITC, UNESCO, ILO and the UN Secretary General The WSIS Forum provides an opportunity for key stakeholders to exchange information, knowledge and sharing the best practices; to identify trends ; and foster a common partnership towards evolving information and knowledge societies. This year, the WSIS Forum discussions centered on the role of ICTs as a means of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets - in line with 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The various outcomes of this meeting are available, High-Level Track Outcomes and the Forum Track outcomes. One of the expectations of the WSIS Forum 2017 were the WSIS Action Lines and the SDGs, these will be published soon.
FAO will continue to apply ICTs in the rural domain focusing on agriculture - farming, fisheries, livestock, and forestry- to boost agricultural and rural development. The meeting was briefed of FAO's innovative ways of packaging and delivering digital value added services to combat hunger and malnutrition. |
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Action Line C7. E-Agriculture; Democratizing Digital Innovation in Agriculture -FAO/ITU FAO Moderated this section recognising the goal of ending poverty and hunger also within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. FAO seeks to apply innovative ways to use ICTs in the rural domain and also to boost agricultural and rural development. The goal of this session was to discuss how ICTs can improve rural livelihoods and increase incomes. Some of the projects that were presented in this session include -
Transcending from Infrastructure to Applications: Building capacity to leverage e-Agriculture applications ITU in conjunction with FAO facilitated this session, under action line C4 and it attracted around 22 participants. This session assessed how capacity building using ICTs can support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (2) which aims at ending hunger and achieving food security and improved nutrition. The session has panelist who shared their experiences in implementing different projects, programs and initiatives dealing with e-Agriculture applications. The following projects were shared, talking book by Cliff Schmidt, GSMA mAgri programme by Dominique Lazanski, use of IoT in Agriculture by Marco Zennaro, IGrow Asia by Muhaimini Iqbal and e-Agriculture by Imma Subirats. The following were highlighted as the key achievements in this session, (i) reduction in the use of chemicals in farming, (ii) increased access to required information, (iii) awareness of sustainable farming methods. This session outcomes included the capacity development and awareness building. Capacity debelopments should include three dimensions - individual, organizational and enabling environment and also to involve all key stakeholders. |
e-AGRICULTURE CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
The following webinar is on schedule and also the recordings for the past webinars are now available. Did you miss any of the sessions? Tune in to the recordings as shown below.
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e-FORUMS |
Two forums are on schedule in the month of July, these are shown below |
Current Forum Title: e-Forum on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition Dates: 19 June to 14 July 2017 Organizers: FAO of the United Nations, WorldBank, GODAN and CTA |
Upcoming Forum Title: e-Forum discussion on the Agriculture Open Data Package The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the Global Open Data on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) are inviting interested individuals to participate in this forum discussion on 'Agriculture Open Data Package' to be held on the e-Agriculture Platform. Dates: 10 July to 24 July 2017 Organizers: GODAN and FAO of the United Nations |
e-AGRICULTURE PARTNER'S NEWSThe 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 |
ICT Update : Applications for Agriculture |
The new ICT Update, Issue 85 is available online and this issue covers the Applications for Agricultue, and reports that CTA is now moving towards the development of Apps4Ag database - which is envisaged as a comprehensive, up-to-date and responsive database of ICTs (includes mobile, web, animation and videos in the food value chains). The article identifies thematic areas of interesting development rural advisory services, financial access, farm management, supply chain management, market access, and agricultural intelligence and knowledge. Selected other articles in this issue |
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In a related news, the Food and Agriculture Organization along with several partners has launched four new agricultural service apps in Africa. FAO realises that many family farmers in developing areas do not have access to technology and digital agricultural services. Hence, through its digital service project the following Apps have been launched in Senegal and Rwanda respectively.
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e-AGRICULTURE NEWS FROM THE REGIONS
The e-Agriculture activities are co-ordinated from the FAO Headquarters, however, there are a lot of activities happening in the regions.Below we provide some news and events happening in the FAO regional offices. |
Europe and Near East Overview of the EFITA 2017- 11th Conference on Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment EFITA is the European conference dedicated to the future use of ICT in the agri-food sector, bioresource and biomass sector. The 2017 conference, which is the 11th of the series is being held in Montpellier in France from the 2nd to the 6th of July 2017. According to the conference website, there are 200 participants that are expected from around 30 countries. This year's conference is held in collaboration with the World Congress on Computers in Agriculture (WCCA).. read more Up coming events Corto & Fieno – Rural Film Festival - Ameno, Omegna and Miasino, Lake Orta, Italy - 15th, 16th and 17th September read more |
Near East and North Africa Region The following two key meetings are on schedule in this region, E-agriculture Strategy: Stakeholders Consultation Workshop on Development of Sudan e-agriculture Strategy. E-agriculture Strategy and Solutions: Regional Forum on e-Agriculture in Near East and North Africa. Venue: Egypt |
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HIGHLIGHTS
Below 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 e-AGRICULTURE AUDIO-VISUALS
This month we focus on the WSIS FORUM INTERVIEWS. Action Line Facilitator for the UN agencies that are facilitating specific action lines. |
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WSIS FORUM 2017 Interviews: Action Line Facilitators (video 1) Summary. This video shows interviews with the following specific action lines - Action Line e-employment (ILO); Action Line e-Business; Action Line C4 Capacity Building, Action Line on e-environment; Action Line ICT infrastructure; Gender mainstreaming and ITU WSIS Team coordination. view this video |
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WSIS FORUM 2017 Interviews: Action Line Facilitators (video 2) Summary. This video shows second part interviews with action line Action e-Agriculture, (details that smallholder farmers need ICT to increase income and improve their livelihoods); e-Science, Building confidence and Security in the Use of ICTs, and access, and UNESCO WSIS coordinator . view this video |
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The purpose of the e-Agriculture Newsletter is to bring to 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 receiving this newsletter, please contact us at [email protected]. You received this message because you are subscribed to the e-Agriculture Newsletter |