GFAR recently announced a series of webinars on farmers' rights to data and this is a follow-up to the face-to-face course on Farmers Access to Data that was held in Centurion (Pretoria), South Africa in November 2017. According to the GFAR website ,the webinars will be co-convened together with GODAN and CTA and will be conducted by the very same trainers who so successfully handled the course in Centurion: Dan Berne, Stephen Kalyesubula, Nicolene Fourie and Anneliza Collett. The two webinars will be held on the 22 and 28 February at 4pm CET , and a recording of each respective webinar will...
African Union publishes a Decision EX . CL/Dec. 986-1007 (XXXII), the Executive Council of the African Union (AU), requests the AU and Member States to harness drones for agriculture as one of three emerging technologies of relevance for African development. The recently held African Union saw its Executive Council of the African Union requesting the AU and Member States to harness drones for agriculture. Drones or the Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been in existence for decades and initially used in the military. Today drones have permeated the development world and has been applied in...
European Commission is inviting young people to participate and play an active role in this year’s EDD 2018 Young Leaders Programme . The programme is looking for 15 extraordinary young people aged 21-26 who can represent the powerful impact that youth are having in the development field. Are you a young person within the ICT4Ag and you have outstanding ideas within ICTs and Agriculture? Do you have achievement within SDGs and Agriculture? Requirements need If you are aged max 26 years old this year, you may be interested in this. Applications close on 2 March 2018 . Application Guidelines...
Does your agricultural ministry still use paper for filing documents and submissions? How can technology help? The e-service support to farmers in Latvia is a good example of how technology can help in these situations. The Electronic Application System (EAS) of the Rural Support Service of the Republic of Latvia was created to electronically submit different types of applications for EU and Latvia’s state support for agriculture, fisheries, forestry, rural areas development, fishermen and rural entrepreneurs. The EAS system held in administration of the ministry and the implementation of...
Agriculture has always been affected by plant pests and diseases, outbreaks can cause huge losses to crops and pastures and threatening the livelihoods of vulnerable smallholder farmers. The following are some of the known pests that have caused in agriculture include, locusts, armyworm, fruit flies, banana diseases, cassava diseases and wheat rusts. Currently, the Fall Armyworm (FAW) has ravaged many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. FAO has already offered a briefing note on FAW which can be read here . The following map shows the countries in Africa affected by the FAW ICTs and pests...
UN Broadband Commission sets global broadband targets to bring online the world’s 3.8 billion not connected to the Internet. This is designed to bring the unconnected online so that they also can benefit from Internet as a resource. Therefore, in response the United Nations’ Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development launches 2025 targets to support “Connecting the Other Half ”. This announcement and targets were launched today at the joint meeting of the Commission and the World Economic Forum. Read the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development 2025 Targets here The press...
FAO is using drones to fight hunger, improve nutrition and counter the effects of climate change and extreme weather events. A documentary from Asia and the Pacific Office of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization shows collaboration with countries to leverage the used of ICTs using drones. Philippines is a country prone to typhoons, aerial drones are used to map out the risk areas of agricultural land to mitigate the risk. This ensures that once a disaster strikes farmers affected can get assistance quicker. Drones have an advantage of wider coverage and since they are remotely...
The curtain of 2018 came down, and as we begin the year e-Agriculture is hopeful to main the 2017 momentum in facilitating the dialogue, information exchange and sharing ideas related to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agriculture and rural development. We are looking forward, first and foremost, to the launch of a newly improved and redesigned platform under the FAO Domain. This will provide the community with a corporate look at feel and while maintaining the core- services, such as News , Blogs , Forum Discussions and other capacity development activities,...
Highlights Blockchain and ICT4D Blockchain use cases in ICT4D Opportunities for blockchain In the past month within the ICT4D, blockchain is probably the most popular topic. The question that l feel resonates with many colleagues in the agricultural sector (and ICT4D) is that, what is this technology, and does it offer any value in international development work? It is with this self-inquisitiveness that l read the GSMA report entitled, ‘ Blockchain for Development: Emerging Opportunities for Mobile, Identity and Aid ”. My initial interest was to get practical applications and use cases of...
