Using information technology in the agriculture of APEC economies and beyond – The potential of Wisdom Agriculture for poverty reduction and improved food security.
Dear Friends,
It is a matter of great pleasure to invite you to this online discussion organized in the context of the “APEC Wisdom Agriculture Workshop” which takes place in Yinchuan on November 24-25, China. The workshop is hosted by the Agriculture Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (AII of CAAS).
Wisdom Agriculture, as it is known in China, is the holistic application of information and communications technology (ICT) to agriculture. This means taking full advantage of modern information technology achievements including computers and networks, internet of things, cloud computing, 3S technology (Remote sensing, Geographic information systems, GPS), and wireless communication technology in order to develop agriculture.
Using these technologies can provide farmers, policy makers and development organizations with information that is more complete thanks to improved remote sensing, more detailed data, better communication tools, intelligent control of agricultural production and management and a better provision of public services to agriculture. This carries huge potential for making farmers produce more and better food all while making them better off economically and improving food security and nutrition.
The “APEC Wisdom Agriculture Workshop” aims to review the existing methodologies, advanced technologies and best practices of Wisdom Agriculture in order to train young researchers from APEC economies and build their capacity in this field.
This online discussion will add additional value to the workshop by allowing for an inclusive exchange on how the use of ICTs in agriculture, as practiced in APEC economies and the rest of the world, fosters poverty reduction, and promotes the establishment of market linkages for smallholders. It will also allow you to share which technologies are best suited for the different local contexts and can provide the greatest benefit for local and global food security.
- With information technologies becoming more common in agriculture, to what extent can they contribute to poverty reduction and increased food security?
- What are the specific challenges and bottlenecks for the full realization of Wisdom Agriculture in APEC Economies? How can a conducive policy environment be created?
- Are there any examples of effective applications of ICTs in the agriculture of your economy during the last decade that have had a positive impact on food security and rural livelihoods? What is the status of the use of technologies in your economy, such as the internet of things and agricultural robots?
- How can smallholder farmers benefit from agricultural product traceability systems?
Anyone interested can join the discussion in either English, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish. Please feel also free to circulate this information among your colleagues.
The comments received will help inform the workshop and foster the exchange of knowledge on this important aspect of agricultural development. On the days of the workshop we will share the preliminary results from the training sessions with all of you, while the inputs received through this online discussion will be discussed at the meeting.
Our sincere thanks go to all of you for the active participation and the open exchange of views!
We look forward to seeing you again!
Professor Zhou Guomin
and the
APEC Wisdom Agriculture workshop team
Topics
- Read 43 contributions
Mr. Durlave Roy
The smart agriculture in Bangladesh
The Ministry of Agriculture usually deals with the crop sector, but agriculture is a multi-sectoral subject that also includes the participation of fisheries, livestock, forests and agro-processing sectors. The draft policy would prioritise agricultural production, generating employment and poverty alleviation and thus ensure food security. Apart from production, agro-processing, marketing, agricultural equipment, irrigation, seeds, fertilizer and mechanisation, the role of women in agriculture and financing would also get priority in the draft National Agriculture Policy. Besides the effects of climate change and environmental pollution on the aspects of agricultural production must be taken into account and solutions formulated for optimum agricultural production and also increased income of farmers. Farmers must be trained in mechanised irrigation and use of fertilizers as also freeing surface water from pollution for proper irrigation of farmlands.
“National Organic Agriculture Policy", aimed at promoting use of "organic and balanced" fertilisers.
The policy focuses on increasing use of "organic and balanced" fertilisers to compensate for erosion and reduction of fertility of land due to use of chemical fertilisers.
English translation below
Bonjour à tous.
Le thème de cette discussion est d’une importance capitale, on s’est toujours demandé comment associer la technologie de l’information à l’amélioration des capacités des petites exploitations familiales plus exposées à la pauvreté et l’insécurité alimentaire et en même temps très attachées aux techniques d’exploitation agricole ancestrales.
De notre petite expérience sur le sujet nous pouvons dire à la question :
1 les technologies de l’information comme dans tous les secteurs ont pour rôle principal de servir de lien entre les chercheurs et le producteur. Dans le sens où elle assure la vulgarisation directe des innovations en termes de techniques et de matériels agricoles. Le souci ici est d’assurer la transmission des bonnes informations (adaptées à apporter des solutions concrètes à un milieu/environnement donné), de faciliter l’accessibilité (les réseaux/ applications d’utilisation commune et facile) aux producteurs/paysans à l’information et enfin améliorer l’interactivité/échanges dans ces réseaux entre les porteurs (chercheurs, vulgarisateurs) de l’information et les personnes ciblées.
2. En Afrique particulièrement le besoin d’innovation Agricole n’est pas poussé, généralement les chercheurs sont confrontés à effectuer des recherches qui parfois ne cadre pas (technologie indisponible ou trop chère) avec les attentes des plus petits producteurs qui sont pourtant les plus représenté soit 80 % pour le cas du Cameroun. Ainsi les defis majeurs en ce qui concerne l’agriculture du savoir dans l’économie de l’APEC est de fournir la possibilité aux chercheurs de s’approcher des besoins réels des petits paysans à fin de réaliser des innovations smart à chaque localité. La politique ici est de mettre en place une stratégie de collaboration participative entre le petit paysan qui décrit clairement ces difficultés rencontrées et les outils (techniques et matériels) qui lui sont accessible mais qu’il n’arrive pas à combiner pour résoudre ces difficultés d’exploitation et le chercheur porteur de l’Agriculture du savoir.
3 . Les TIC bien que très peu appliqué au Cameroun dans le domaine agricole ont néanmoins intégré la file de production Agricole, particulièrement en ce qui concerne le recensement Agricole (la détermination des bassins de production, les différents niveaux de production, la traçabilité des produits sur le marché).
L’utilisation des réseaux internet de partage d’expérience sur les techniques agricole s’améliorent de plus en plus bien que quelques réseaux de référence se distingue mais les producteurs eux même se battent à créer des petits réseaux de partage. La mécanisation agricole tarde à voir le jour néanmoins quelque expérience sont observés principalement dans les fermes animales plus précisément avicoles où on y investi plus de moyens.
4. la traçabilité des produits agricoles permet d’identifier des marchés potentiels pour les petits exploitants agricoles en quête de nouveaux marchés de commercialisation. La majorité se regroupent en coopérative principalement pour les cacaoculteurs et le café culteur à fin d’harmoniser les ventes et mieux se servir principalement de l’outil de traçabilité des produits agricoles pour non seulement comparer les prix des produits d’ici et d’ailleurs mais aussi de déterminer les zones de forte demande et la possibilité d’acheminer des produits agricoles vers des marchés ciblés.
Hello everyone!
The topic of this discussion is of great importance, we are always asking ourselves how to link information technology to the improvement of the abilities of those small family farms most exposed to poverty and food insecurity and, at the same time, very attached to their ancestral farming methods.
Drawing on our limited experience of this matter, we can respond to the questions as follows:
1 Information technologies, as in all sectors, have as their main role to serve as a link between researchers and the producer. In the sense of ensuring the direct popularization of innovations such as techniques and farming materials. The problem here is to ensure the transmission of good information (adapted to deliver concrete solutions in a given environment), to facilitate accessibility (the network/common and easy user applications) of information to the producers/farmers so as to improve the interactivity/exchanges within this network between the contributors (researchers, transmitters) of the information and the people for whom it is intended.
2. In Africa in particular, the need for agricultural innovation is not driven, in general researchers are forced to make studies that perhaps do not coincide (unavailable technology or too expensive) with the expectations of the small producers who are moreover in the majority, around 80%, in the case of Cameroon. Thus the major challenges in what concerns agriculture, for instance in the economy of APEC, is to enable researchers to come closer to the real needs of the small farmers so as to carry out innovations appropriate to each locality. The policy here is to implement a strategy of participative collaboration between the small farmer who describes clearly the difficulties encountered and the tools (techniques and materials) that are accessible to him but which he does not manage to combine, in order to solve the difficulties of exploitation and the researcher who brings the knowledge of agriculture.
3. The ICT, even though they are not much applied in Cameroon in the farming sector, have nevertheless, been incorporated into the agricultural production dossier and, in particular, in what concerns the Agricultural inventory (determination of production areas, the different levels of production, and the traceability of products in the market).
The use of internet networks to share experience on farming techniques is getting better and better, even though some reference networks stand out, but the producers themselves struggle to create small shared networks. Agricultural mechanization is slow; nevertheless some experiences are observed mainly among stock farms, in particular poultry where they have invested more resources.
4. Traceability of agricultural products enables the identification of potential markets for the small farmers in the quest for new sales outlets. The majority are grouped in cooperatives, mainly for the producers of cacao and coffee, so as to harmonize the sales and to take advantage of the traceability of agricultural products, not only to compare prices of the local products with others, but also to determine the areas of strong demand and the possibility of channeling agricultural products towards the targeted markets.
1. Information technology can contribute significantly to improvement in agricultural and non-agricultural productivity and applications are common across livestock, agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, forestry and all the service providers to agriculture.
2. The bottlenecks to exploiting IT are widespread access to reliable electricity and communication system support. With the shift to mobile technology access to reliable and reasonable speed Internet is a crucial requirement fore effective use of IT in agriculture and especially for smallholders, medium-sized holders and large operations.
3. Precision agriculture is growing quite rapidly, enabled by GPS receivers for mapping soils, weeds, diseases, yields and landform. Barriers to adoption of technology in contemporary agriculure include celular connectivity, Internet speed and others.
4. Traceability systems have been applied in a mandatory way in Australia now for several years using RFID technology.
Smallholders can achieve many of the benefits of traceability systems that larger producers achieve: improved disease control and improved quality assurance for users. In addition, RFID tags offer the potential for improved animal tracking and management of genetic improvement. In many respects its becoming the cost of not having a traceability system because competitors do have it. That means market access can be denied without adoption of effective traceability systems.
This activity is now closed. Please contact [email protected] for any further information.