Blockchain explained: A guide to one of the modern world’s greatest innovations Blockchain! What comes into your mind when you hear this word? Bitcoin, Crypto-currencies etc. Indeed there has been a lot of interest in this subject from many people interested in technology and development. An article by Michael Kern provides some background information of this technology, in this article he explains how exactly the technology came about, how does it work, and what industries is it reshaping? Below we attempt to summarize this article. What is blockchain technology and where did it come from?...
Small holder farmers are increasingly being exposed to loss of crop due to climate related risks caused by climate change. In this light, Weather Based Crop Insurance Schemes (WBCIS) were created with an intention to provide protection to the farmers against adverse weather incidence. When a disaster strikes, one important aspect is assessing the loss at farm level. Can technology help, well we just learnt that the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed WheatCam, a picture-based insurance (PBI) app that farmers can download on their smartphones. The Indian...
Two days to discover agricultural robotics and exchange with pioneers in the field. The FIRA International Forum of Agricultural Robotics unites a wide range of agricultural players in order to exchange ideas and collaborate towards the future of agriculture. We aim to establish a community that...
African agriculture is faced by many challenges and yet technology – especially satellite and drone-assisted mapping technologies are poised to improve decision making for farmers and governments. However, since most farmers in Africa are smallholder farmers and mostly poor, what business models can be employed in collecting and processing key agricultural data? As part of the Innovation in Outcome Measurement (IOM) initiative, which was a tow year program to develop and test cheaper, better, and faster ways of collecting agricultural data – TechnoServe conducted a pilot project in Uganda to...
News Release as published on FAO Website 25 June 2018, Rome - The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and Pennsylvania State University joined forces to develop and launch an innovative, talking app - Nuru - to help African farmers recognize Fall Armyworm, a new and fast-spreading crop pest in sub-Saharan Africa, so that they can take immediate steps to destroy it and curb its spread. Fall Armyworm first appeared in Africa in 2016, in West Africa, and then rapidly spread across all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, infecting millions of hectares of maize, and threatening...
The 14th International Conference on Precision Agriculture is being held in Montreal, QC Canada and is organised by the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) which is a non-profit professional scientific organization. The final Oral and Poster programs are posted on the 14th ICPA...
The training materials and presentation now available for download The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in partnership with the Geoinformatics Centre, Asian Institute of Technology held on the 4th to the 8th of June a training on the use of drones, satellite imagery and GIS in agriculture. This training comes as a follow-up to the FAO-ITU E-agriculture in Action: Drones for Agriculture publication. The publication shared knowledge and experiences in the use of drones in agriculture from various countries and partners. Training...
The Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS) is a monitoring and education tool that feeds several platforms that are used to make decisions about Fall Armyworm (FAW). Data are inputted via an app for smartphones, which provide exact locations of the source of the information. Data can be collected on FAW prevalence in fields (infested crop plants) or from pheromone traps that attract adult moths. Data collection is done using FAO’s FAW Guidance Notes and is available in five languages. The app also provides basic background information on FAW and will soon incorporate an...
During the East African Farmers Digital Conference , Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KARLO) launched 14 agribusiness apps to help farmers in making farming choices and decisions. This development comes as agricultural industry in Africa is experiencing a growth in technology driven applications – from drones, apps, GIS and many others. These digitization efforts in agriculture allows farmers to access markets, improve their farming practices as well as to predict weather accurately. KARLO seeks to give farmers research based information they need, and the organization...
The Issue No.189 of the SPORE magazine is now available and if focuses on the ICT4Ag start-ups as avenues to build better E-Agribusiness. Within the African, Caribbean and the Pacific countries young people have shown an enthusiasm for innovation in ICTs for Agriculture (ICT4Ag). There is a burning urge by young people to use ICTs to solve agriculture problems or to improve agricultural productivity. Highlights of SPORE Magazine This current edition of the SPORE magazine overviews some innovation and ICT solutions in the region, and these include: The Feed Calculator – a Dutch firm (Single...
Two days to discover agricultural robotics and exchange with pioneers in the field. The FIRA International Forum of Agricultural Robotics unites a wide range of agricultural players in order to exchange ideas and collaborate towards the future of agriculture. We aim to establish a community that...
The 14th International Conference on Precision Agriculture is being held in Montreal, QC Canada and is organised by the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) which is a non-profit professional scientific organization. The final Oral and Poster programs are posted on the 14th ICPA...
