Communities of Practices and Digital Integrated Platforms

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in conjunction with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are organizing a parallel session during the WSIS 2019. The session is entitled ‘Communities of Practices and Digital Integrated Platforms’ and will be held on the 8th of April 2019 in Geneva, Swirtzerland with a possibility of online participation

Details of the Session

• 16:30 - 18:15 on Monday the 8th of April 2019
• Room K2, ITU Montbrillant

Remote participate online click here

About the session: ​Communities of Practices and Digital Integrated Platforms

By 2050, world population is projected to rise to around 10 billion and agriculture in 2050 will need to produce almost 50 percent more food, feed and biofuel than it did in 2012; however, yield increases are slowing, despite overall improvements in agricultural efficiency.

Estimated yield gaps, expressed as a percentage of potential yields, exceed 50 percent in most low-income countries. 821 million people go hungry today and malnutrition affects 1 in 3 people and all nations. Rapid urbanization, together with income growth in low- and middle-income countries, is accelerating the dietary transition towards higher consumption of meat, fruits and vegetables, relative to that of cereals, requiring commensurate shifts in output and adding pressure on natural resources.

Digital Innovation as the central driving force to transform food systems and help the world to achieve the SDGs. Innovation in agriculture, as a way to achieve and leverage concrete results, cuts across all dimensions of the production cycle along the entire value chain – from crop, forestry, fishery or livestock production to the management of inputs and resources, to organization and market access.

Digital Innovation is about social, economic, institutional/organizational and policy processes, and having an impact on the lives of family farmers. A shift from interventions focusing on single components of agricultural innovation towards a systemic approach, including knowledge sharing and networking.

In 2007, in collaboration with 13 founding partners, FAO launched the e-Agriculture Community of Practice, where people from all over the world exchange information, ideas, and resources related to the use of ICT for sustainable agriculture and rural development. With over 14,000 members from 170 countries and territories, the e-Agriculture Community includes individual stakeholders such as information and communication specialists, researchers, farmers, students, policy makers, business people, development practitioners, and others.

The e-Agriculture members have a common interest: improving policies and processes around the use of ICT in support of agriculture and rural development, in order to have a positive impact on rural livelihoods. Like this, the organization maintains several other communities and hubs exchanging information and knowledge, reaching various targeted audiences.

The most known are Farmer Field Schools, Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition, Family Farming Knowledge Platform, and the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub.  Read more