BACKGROUND The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are providing policy recommendations, guidelines and tools to improve Extension Advisory Services (EAS) systems, in order to build resilience of smallholders to crises and disasters. As the world is currently struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the farmers in countries including NENA region are facing dual burden i.e., inadequate health services coupled with timely extension services for sustaining their livelihoods. The digital disruption in EAS may define the...
The GIZ agricultural Innovation fund is looking for startups or small businesses with innovative ideas for the agri-food sector in Africa (Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia) and South East Asia. The global community has set itself the goal to end hunger by 2030. To achieve this, agriculture must become more efficient and...
FAO's e-agriculture platform promotes dialogue and innovation in agriculture, now hosts China's 2019-25 development plan Technology has a growing role in agriculture. 7 February 2020, Rome - FAO today welcomes the sharing of China's digital agriculture plan on its e-agriculture platform. This contribution comes on the heels of the latest Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA), where agriculture ministers of 71 nations welcomed the advancement in creating an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture. China's Development Plan for Digital Agriculture and Rural Areas (2019-2025...
The African Drone Forum’s Business Challenge is the first Pan-African business plan competition designed exclusively for African entrepreneurs that have identified new and innovative business models enabled through drone technology and data. The commercial use cases for drone applications can impact a broad array of sectors. At present, there are emerging applications in Africa related to healthcare delivery, land digitization, agriculture or livestock monitoring, disease surveillance, urbanization tracking, and flood impact assessment. The objective of the African Drone Business Challenge is...
The September Issue of ICT Update is now available online and reflects on the 20 years of publishing the ICT Update - nearly 100 issues . The current issue highlights three recurring themes – learning; barriers for inclusion and adoption of ICTs; and innovation and entrepreneurship.An editorial by Yanick Bakker and Chris Addison walks readers through the details of the three main highlights mentioned above. Read the editorial here Furthermore, their editorial reveals a rich history of development of the ICT Update alongside the developments in technology and regional focus of specific...
The INNOVATION Quartely Update (2019 #3) has been released! The update provides an overview of highlights from the innovation activities of UN organisations affiliated with the UN innovation Network.There are very exciting news from the UN Community, below we review a few selection of the innovations The UN Innovation Network (UNIN) is an informal, collaborative community of UN innovators interested in sharing their expertise and experience with others to promote and advance innovation within the UN System. The UNIN is open to innovators from all UN Agencies as well as external partners and...
The joint ITU-FAO session will will take place on 11 September 2019 at 11.00h. This session will be held within the framework of the ITU Regional Initiative for Europe on ICT-centric innovation ecosystems that aims at establishing a sustainable culture of innovation through concrete strategic...
A recent paper reports on a study where three complementary ICT-based extension methods – interactive radio, mobile SMS messages and village-based video screenings where used to enhance farmer’s knowledge and management of Fall Armyworm (FAW) in western Uganda. The findings show how complementary ICT-based extension campaigns hold a great potential to improve farmers knowledge and management of invasive species such as FAW. Citation: Tambo JA, Aliamo C, Davis T, Mugambi I, Romney D, Onyango DO, et al. (2019) T he impact of ICT-enabled extension campaign on farmers’ knowledge and management of...
Scaling up innovations and solutions in agriculture was discussed in the September 2018 conference, Innovations in Agriculture: Scaling Up to Reach Millions , organized by Purdue University, in partnership with the African Development Bank. The Scale Up Sourcebook is a collection of contributions at the said conference and also aims to capture methodologies for leveraging globally the technology and innovations designed to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods in the developing world. The publication distils the expertise, ground-breaking innovations, and examples of successful...
A new publication by FAO that maps the adoption and use of digital innovations and technologies in agriculture has been published. The full report can be downloaded in the following links The full status report in English, link http://www.fao.org/3/ca4985en/ca4985en.pdf , The briefing paper in six UN languages through links below: http://www.fao.org/3/ca4887zh/ca4887zh.pdf (Chinese): http://www.fao.org/3/ca4887es/ca4887es.pdf (Spanish): http://www.fao.org/3/ca4887ru/ca4887ru.pdf (Russian) http://www.fao.org/3/ca4887fr/ca4887fr.pdf (French) http://www.fao.org/3/ca4887ar/ca4887ar.pdf (Arabic)...
The joint ITU-FAO session will will take place on 11 September 2019 at 11.00h. This session will be held within the framework of the ITU Regional Initiative for Europe on ICT-centric innovation ecosystems that aims at establishing a sustainable culture of innovation through concrete strategic...
