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. This tool provides open access to the water database over underlying maps - the tool allows quering of data; time series analyses, area statistics related to water and land use assessments. The...
In the recent special report entitled ' EU Farming getting smarte r' the EURACTIV.com covers on technology and agriculture. The publication reports that European Union is exploring ways of helping its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) enter the digital era after 2020. However, there are numerous challenges that are identified such as the e-skills building, lack of broadband infrastructure and Big Data management. Below we present the abstracts of the titles covered in this report. Smart farming hinges on e-skills and rural internet access The digitisation of agriculture could help Europe...
Over 90% of sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 million smallholder farmers lack access to formal credit. Although agriculture accounts for around 65% of employment and 32% of gross domestic product, less than 6% of commercial loan recipients are smallholder farmers. The problem is on both sides: on the one hand, farmers cannot purchase quality inputs to improve their production, on the other hand, financial institutions cannot provide loans without an accurate assessment of the farmers’ financial viability. Farmers are therefore left with little access to credit, and financial institutions with a hole...
This announcement is reproduced and shared on e-Agriculture as published on AIMS View this announcement in French View this announcement in Spanish AGORA team is pleased to announce three upcoming webinars in English, French and Spanish about how AGORA can be browsed to facilitate information searching in the area of nutrition research . AGORA’s main purpose is to improve the quality and effectiveness of agricultural research, education and training in low- and middle-income countries. AGORA/Research4Life provides free or low cost access to peer-reviewed journals (to date, 9,000), datasets...
In Ghana, the agricultural north supplies food to buyers in the south. The travel is mostly done by car and takes up a lot of time. Also, these long journeys are done carrying large sums of money, as the north suffers from a lack of banks. To face the issue of large money trandactions across the country, the ADVANCE II Project (Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement) has developed a mobile money solution as it diminishes the threat of theft, ensures efficient payment and offers the access to financial services such as savings, insurance, and credit. USAID ’s ADVANCE II Project...
In this blog Oxfam publishes a report that gives a glimpse on the use of ICTs in humanitarian response. The report details activities, outcomes of the Scaling Humanitarian ICTs Networks (SHINE) project. Similarly e-Agriculture forum on ICTs and resilence provided use cases of ICTs in humanitarian situations in the agricultural domain Natural disasters such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, diseases epidemics and man-made crises such as conflicts, war and socio-economuc shocks still bedevil communities and affect agricultural activities. Are ICTs a tool in a humanitarian response...
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ( CTA ) is informing the community that it 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 also called the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and are used in the management of crops, fisheries, forests and other natural resource-based activities within farming activities. This is possible as drones are equipped with high resolution cameras to facilitate advanced crop research using remote-sensed data . Airinov...
The PRISE (Pest Risk Information Service) project forecasts pest outbreaks based on earth observation providing risk forecasts and early warnings in order for smallholders to take action and avoid crop losses. The project has been awarded £6.38 million (or 7,9 million USD) in funding over five years by the UK Space Agency . CABI CEO, Dr Trevor Nicholls, said, “An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s crops are lost to pests. This impacts the ability of smallholders living in poor rural communities to feed their families." The project will also be based on Plantwise, a CABI program combining a...
The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has published a guide or laws governing the use of UAVs. As of April 2016, 73% of ACP countries did not have any rules or regulations in place; 19% had some regulations in place; and 8% were in the process of formulating them. The data gathered in the course of the study have been published on a site hosted by The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) and are accessible at w ww.droneregulations.info . The use and application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or popularly known as drones is increasingly becoming common in...
