You are invited to participate in the interactive session with youth during the first International Symposium on agricultural innovation for family farmers. The event, organized in collaboration with Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD), is bringing together youth representatives and innovators around the world – both online and in-person – to interact with experts, present the key drivers behind their innovations, share their ideas and contribute their inputs to the outcomes of the symposium. Among the participants are four YPARD members: Nikki Pilania and Alpha Sennon (...
International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food and Agriculture The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Government of Switzerland have announced the call for nominations for the 1st International Innovation Award for the Sustainable Food and Agriculture. The call is targeted at individuals, private companies or institutions to submit a nomination for the following categories before the 28th of February 2019: Award for Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems (USD 40 000) – Innovations that impact more than one level of the supply chain and strengthen the link...
The FAO headquarters in Rome was this morning abuzz with delegates and participants to the much anticipated International Symposium on Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers , which runs from the 21st to the 23rd of November 2018. The theme of this symposium is ‘unlocking the potential of agricultural innovation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals ”. This theme was chosen amidst the global challenges facing the world which have affected the sustainability of food and agricultural systems, affecting livelihoods of millions of family farmers worldwide. Hence, innovation is the...
Most of us are familiar with Wikipedia, which is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. What about Wikifarmer ? Similarly, it is a user created online farming library. Wikifarmer helps all farmers across the planet find valuable information regarding their existing or potential crops and livestock. The resource is designed to give practical solutions that can be applied by the average farmer. Wikifarmer is available in 8 languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Greek and Hindi. Users can...
In 2018, FAO launched multiple open innovation challenge to find high-potential digital solutions to address challenges faced by food and agriculture and improve livelihoods. Participants benefited from the specific know-how and skill sets of FAO and private sector experts in IT development, food and agriculture, business model canvas and pitching, culminating in a final pitch sessions and awards for the most innovative, scalable, impactful and financially sustainable start-ups or solutions. From 19-20 August, 24 entrepreneurs, 8 teams across 7 countries in Africa came together in Kigali,...
e-Agriculture caught up with the new YPARD Director Mr. Yemi Adeyeye and interviewed him on a number of issues affecting the youth in agriculture and especially in Africa. e-Agriculture: Congratulations for the appointment to Director YPARD,could you briefly introduce yourself? Yemi : First, many thanks for granting me this interview opportunity. My name is Yemi Adeyeye, a Nigerian national. My education and professional background focus on partnership relations and multi-stakeholder engagement in resources governance in the context of forest and agricultural landscapes with a keen emphasis...
The ICT4D Conference organising committee is pleased to announce the "Call for Speakers" to the 11th ICT4D conference which will take place on April 30th to May 3rd 2019 in Kampala, Uganda. ICT4D conference is a yearly gathering that bring together public, private and civil society organizations from across the humanitarian and international development community. Participants share how they have used innovations in technology to solve today's humanitarian and developmental issues and also how ICTs increase impact of their work. Conference themes for 2019 Agriculture Digital Financial...
On the 17th of October 2018, CABI announced the PestSmart Diagnostics e-Learning course. The course is part of CABI PestSmart Diagnostic package , designed to help plant health practitioners and students to develop and improve their ability to recognize plant symptoms, relate them to causes and to identify what is causing the problem. The e-Learning course is derived from the Plantwise programme and the course is unique in two ways. It is the first plant health e-learning product and secondly, it is a rare example of a proven innovation developed from an aid sector into a commercial product...
by Olaitan Ogunnote & Raimot Adewunmi - Undergraduate Research Assistants, ECV Ontario, SEDRD, University of Guelph Introduction While we might not yet be able to live on our red monochromatic, moon-like planetary counterpart, Mars, we could make our stay on the bright bluish-green Earth with hints of white, a little bit longer and more enjoyable through technology. Particularly, through technology that makes the world less hungry and the environment more conducive, in other words, more food sovereign . Therefore, what does this world of food sovereignty look like and how can technology...
Access to Agriculture (a video platform with agricultural videos) won the ‘Digital for Development’ Prize. Access Agriculture was selected as the winner of ‘iStandOut’ category at the biannual Prize Digital for Development (D4D). Access to Agriculture seeks to promote innovations in sustainable agriculture and rural enterprises through capacity development and South-South exchange through farmer-to-farmer video trainings. In many countries, farmers use local languages (and cannot speak English, French or Spanish). Access agriculture has trained local partners to translate videos into their...
