E-Agriculture

Posts on the topic "financial inclusion"

Posts on the topic "financial inclusion"

  • Digital Inclusion through mobile connectivity

    Can mobile money transform women's lives? The digital revolution has spread in many developing countries and mobile telephony is readily available and has penetrated areas not yet reached by other prior inventions. In Africa for example, the mobile adaption has grown in recent years and in 2017 overall subscriber penetration was recorded at 44% . However, women still face a challenge or ‘triple divide’ –that is digital, rural and gender divide ( FAO, 2018:5 ). The Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2018 established that mobile connectivity is not spreading its gains equally across gender. Some...

  • GSMA Launches Innovation Fund for Rural Connectivity in Ghana and Uganda

    The GSMA today announced a new Innovative Fund for Rural Connectivity seeking to expand digital inclusion in Ghana and Uganda. The Fund will provide grants up to £300,000 and is open to eligible companies who can deploy solutions in Uganda or Ghana and is implemented in partnership with MTN Uganda and Vodafone Ghana respectively. Projects eligible for funding should employ innovative ways to deploy mobile broadband networks in rural areas with partnerships with a mobile operator and projects should be commercially viable and scalable in similar environments. The Innovation Fund for Rural...

  • UN Women and WFP harness blockchain technology for Crisis Situations

    In a recent press release, UN Women and the World Food Programmw (WFP)have announced that they are breaking new ground by using blockchain to assist Syrian refugee women participating in UN Women’s cash for work programmes at the Za’atari and Azraq refugee camps in Jordan. Before adopting this technology, WFP has been doing cash transfer to refugees via third-party financial service providers such as banks. However, through blockchain, UN women and WFP are exploring the possibility of providing female refugee with cash back at WFP-contracted supermarkets or pay for thier purchases directly...

  • Funding call : Development Innovation ventures

    Do you have an idea that can solve peoples’ problems, such as end hunger, malnutrition and poverty eradication? Are you willing to transform those bright ideas into global solutions? If yes, the opportunity has arisen with the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), the USAID’s open innovation program that tests and scales creative solutions to any global development challenge. DIV recognized that innovative solutions come in many forms - whether a product, technology, service, or application of a creative business and delivery model. DIV is an open door to USAID - anyone, anywhere can apply...

  • Funding sources for ICT4D Research

    The UNESCO Chair in ICT4D has published a page that provides a catalog of funding for ICT4D research. This page comes in handy as funding information is haphazardly littered on newsletters, funders’ websites, social media and many other diverse sources. Once can constantly check their page and also contact them for additions. For our e-Agriculture community, we reproduce the list below (we are however not responsible for the up datedness of the information) UK funding agencies EPSRC (physical sciences) – current funding calls Cross-ICT priorities 2017-20 ICT strategy ICT theme ESRC (social...

  • ICT Update focuses on Blockchain applications for Agriculture

    Blockchain or distributed ledger technologies are relatively new technologies and have been adopted in a number of sectors. The recent ICT update explains what blockchains are and their applications in agriculture. The most appealing aspect of this technology is its focus on trust, transparency of transactions, immutability and incorruptibility of transactions, low operating and transactional costs and distributed governance in a large network. In light of these reasons, one of the article cites the following applications in agriculture Value Chain Blockchains can allow consumers to track and...

  • Can Bitcoin technology help farmers get a better deal?

    BBC news reports that digital technology from apps to blockchain technology are opening new ways for farmers and smallholders to new ways of doing business. The featured article focuses on one farmer, Take Muhammed Adams who is a cocoa farmer attested that technology run by commodities giant Olam has helped him improve his productivity and pest management. The case of Olam is previewed as an avenue for digital initiatives used in agriculture, and they have done so for the past 18 months. Olam apps allow farm products to be tracked from the farm to the markets and allows farmers to check cocoa...

  • FAO Ag-Lab innovation incubation event launched in Beijing

    Innovation lab gives youth the chance to unlock and accelerate social and economic potential of traditional agriculture sector This article was initially published by FAO China, and is reproduced for the e-Agriculture CoP 11/07/2018 . New initiatives can empower the traditional agricultural sector and enhance rural livelihoods, according to FAO China at the FAO Ag-Lab innovation incubation event, launched in Shijia Hutong Museum today in Beijing. Co-hosted by Tsinghua University, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and China Internet Information Centre (CIIC), the incubation event has...

  • How robotics and Artificial Intelligence will shape access to finance for Smallholder farmers in East Africa?

    An audio-visual podcast by MicroSave provides an insight into how Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and drone technology have a potential to improve access to finance for smallholder farmers in East Africa. MicroSave is an international financial inclusion consulting firm operating in eleven offices across Asia and Africa. While strengthening the capacity of local institutions, the firm designs and implement market-led solutions for financial services and most importantly designs a variety of financial inclusion models. In the above referred podcast entitled, “ Drones...