Research findings by the youth at Mastercard Foundation Rome – Africa is in the height of a crisis and an opportunity. Africa’s population stands at 1,2 billion people and over 60% are below the age of 25. Yet most African youths are not employed, and according to the World Bank by 2035, 350 million new jobs will be needed . Africa’s population is growing faster than jobs are created. There is a potential for agriculture to create employment, however, African youths in Sub-Saharan Africa do not realize agriculture as a profitable opportunity for livelihood. There is a growing notion that the...
On the 25th of April 2018 the e-Agriculture team organized a webinar in partnership with Grameen Foundation on the FarmerLink in the Philippines: Digital Innovation for Agriculture . The webinar presented the strategy used to develop and deploy FarmerLink, and review results of an 18-month pilot implementation.You can watch the presentation here Grameen Foundation, in collaboration with the Philippine Coconut Authority, Franklin Baker, and People’s Bank of Caraga launched FarmerLink to increase farming households’ incomes and resilience by improving their productivity, providing them access...
In developing countries, there is little smallholder farmers can do to protect themselves from shock. When faced with unexpected volatility, they often turn to negative coping mechanisms like selling assets, reducing meals, or pulling children out of school. To address this, Digital Development for...
In January, l attended the webinar on Blockchain for Development, which was hosted by NETHOPE solutions. With the cryptocurrency buzz and the bitcoin bullish behavior l was curious to learn about this new technology and how it is applied in development and also how it can be assimilated within food and agriculture. The webinar title was “ Blockchain for Development: Moving from Hype to Reality ”. This was the fifth of the ongoing ICT4D webinar series by the NetHope community What is blockchain? It is a shared ledger that records the history of transactions -It cannot be altered without...
Smallholder farmers constitute the bulk of the global farmers , about 90% of the worlds farms are owned and operated by families and most live in rural areas. Yet most of these are affected by the effects of climate change, funding crisis, drought and other factors inhibiting agriculture. In fact,...
In celebrating the "International Women's Day' (IWD 2018) FAO, IFAD and WFP have organized this year’s annual event on how media and ICT can empower rural women and girls to transform their lives. During this day's celebrations, a new publication, " GENDER AND ICTs : Mainstreaming gender in the use...
This announcement is shared for informational purpose to the e-Agriculture Community as announced by CTA in dgroups . CTA is looking for articles for the forthcoming issue of ICT Update , which will deal with blockchain in agricultur e Blockchain can be defined as a digital ledger that allows storage and exchange of information in a decentralized, immutable, autonomous and trustworthy manner. It allows actors engaged in a transaction to quickly share information, which can include financial data, without a central authority. No single actor can damage the records. Blockchain technology is...
Join us for our next e-Agriculture webinar on cross-sector partnerships in ICT4Ag with Mercy Corps presenting the ZFU Ecofarmer Combo. When: Wednesday 6 December 2017 at 2 PM UTC 3 PM Central European Time 4 PM Zimbabwe Where: Live webinar on Adobe Connect: register here to receive instructions The...
Join us for our next e-Agriculture webinar on cross-sector partnerships in ICT4Ag with Mercy Corps presenting the ZFU Ecofarmer Combo. When: Wednesday 6 December 2017 at 2 PM UTC 3 PM Central European Time 4 PM Zimbabwe Where: Live webinar on Adobe Connect: register here to receive instructions The ZFU Ecofarmer Combo is a bundle of services developed by Econet, the largest Mobile Network Provider in Zimbabwe, and the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, with the support of Mercy Corps. It was one of the best promising practices submitted for the e-Agriculture “call for good and promising practices”...
This article surmises that in Africa technology can help farmers not lose income by knowing ahead when to sell their produce. Technology can connect farmers to the markets; market failure is an outcome of a communication failure between farmers and markets. The solution of 2KUZE , is a commercial system designed by MasterCard which links farmers and trading in a virtual market place, using text messages on basic mobile phones. This is an example of the many simple technological innovations that can transform agriculture in African countries, and improve income of smallholder farmers. The...
In developing countries, there is little smallholder farmers can do to protect themselves from shock. When faced with unexpected volatility, they often turn to negative coping mechanisms like selling assets, reducing meals, or pulling children out of school. To address this, Digital Development for...
Smallholder farmers constitute the bulk of the global farmers , about 90% of the worlds farms are owned and operated by families and most live in rural areas. Yet most of these are affected by the effects of climate change, funding crisis, drought and other factors inhibiting agriculture. In fact,...0 comments
In celebrating the "International Women's Day' (IWD 2018) FAO, IFAD and WFP have organized this year’s annual event on how media and ICT can empower rural women and girls to transform their lives. During this day's celebrations, a new publication, " GENDER AND ICTs : Mainstreaming gender in the use...0 comments