The issue:

Cambodia needs more and better-quality statistical data in agriculture and the rural sector and these data are required much faster. Timely and reliable statistics are vital for development of responsive policies and progressive agricultural programmes. Access to reliable data and information is also critical for the functionality of investment and market operations. At the same time, Cambodia faces challenges to ensure the effective use of natural resources in an environmentally friendly manner.

In 2020, Cambodia will release its first annual survey of agriculture. The survey involved approximately 16 000 households in all provinces across Cambodia, and used a computer-assisted personal interviewing system to streamline data collection and management. This vital dataset will contribute to Cambodia’s ability to report on the agricultural productivity and income of small-scale producers under the Sustainable Development Goals through a new platform.

The action:

The 50x2 030 is an ambitious effort to conduct regular surveys of farming households in 50 low and lower-middle income countries by 2030. The survey involved approximately 16 000 households in all provinces across Cambodia, and used a computer-assisted personal interviewing system (CAPI) to streamline data collection and management.  

Expected results

In 2020, Cambodia is set to release its first annual survey of agriculture.  Through this initiative, Cambodia will also be the first country in Asia to join the AGRISurvey Programme and transition to the 50x2 030 Initiative, a collaboration between the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and FAO.

The benefits of CAPI include improved accuracy, faster access to data and analysis, the ability to capture geo-tagged video and audio files, and lesser paper to deal with when working with surveys. The survey will collect comprehensive data on the agricultural sector, including rice and crop farming, livestock, fisheries, natural rubber, agri-business, and lending for agricultural activities for both families and commercial firms.

This vital dataset will contribute to Cambodia’s ability to report on the agricultural productivity and income of small-scale producers under SDG 2 (especially 2.3 and 2.4) and SDG 12 (12.2) through a new platform, CamStat. The data, when made more widely available and in a timely manner, will contribute to better understanding the situation of Cambodia’s agricultural sector and to better policies and decision-making.

Geographic focus

In partnership with the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) of the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) to produce the first Cambodia Inter-Censal Agricultural Survey, USAID, WB and IFAD.

Iran introduced SatPlat, an online platform that helps the farmers make better strategic decisions by providing insights about their farms. It also helps them increase crop yield and quality and decrease the costs and resources required for food production. This online tool automatically indexes and processes data from satellite, drone, and Internet of Things sensors to provide descriptive, prescriptive and predictive solutions for smart agriculture. 

Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather and climate. Without adequate rainfall and appropriate temperatures, crops fail and pastures become barren. Interestingly, the opposite is also true, weather and climate are influenced by agricultural practices.

By managing croplands and pastures, farmers influence a series of physical, chemical and biological interactions between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere that can affect air temperature and precipitation in many ways. Farmers in developing countries require low cost and accessible solutions to reduce their poverty and ensure food security.

The issue

Environmental challenges require smart solutions for energy and water management by the deployment of optimized automated systems in agriculture, forestry, livestock, poultry, and fishery industries. Rural communities should adopt climate-smart strategies in order to be able to mitigate the effects of climate change in the next decades. The smart villages and rural communities provide the means for this essential transformation by optimizing the energy consumption and intelligent management of human impact on the environmentas well as rapid response to climate-related disasters and business disruptions. 

The action

Iran introduced SatPlat, an online platform that helps the farmers make better strategic decisions by providing insights about their farms. It also helps them increase crop yield and quality and decrease the costs and resources required for food production. This online tool automatically indexes and processes data from satellite, drone, and Internet of Things sensors to provide descriptive, prescriptive and predictive solutions for smart agriculture. The platform combines artificial intelligence and remote sensing technologies to provide solutions for crop health monitoring, yield estimation, optimum planting and harvest planning, and intelligent irrigation. The platform works actively with top Iranian universities and research communities. 

Results:

The farmers can select their farms using either the smartphone application or online version and the data fields required such as crop health, irrigation, fertilization and evapotranspiration. Several other indices are provided for them on a weekly basis. The introduction of Satplat on national television led to a nationwide interest from farmers, and provided the experience for optimization of multiplatform SatPlat solutions for various user groups.

Big data analytics and cloud computing platform provided by this remote sensing platform help farmers to obtain insights about their farms and optimize their farming processes without having to buy expensive infrastructure.

The SatPlat platform has provided services to agricultural insurance companies and national disaster management teams of the Ministry of Agriculture-Jahad in Iran, which have significant advantages over manual traditional solutions.

Geographic focus: Iran

In Lao People’s Democratic Republic,the village public announcement systemremains a critical public communicationand information dissemination tool inrural and remote communities. A partnership with Lao National Radio totrained local farmers in broadcasting skillsto inform farming households aboutclimate and geospatial information inlocal languages via this establishedcommunity channel.

The issue:

Lao PDR is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, including extreme weather events, which have been increasing in frequency and intensity. Almost all the country’s farming systems are susceptible to flooding, drought and the late onset of the rainy seasons. With a high dependency on traditional agricultural systems and a predominance of smallholder farms, the impacts of such natural disasters can be all the more devastating.

The action:

The project “Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in LAO PDR”  has developed a system called Laos Climate Services in Agriculture or LaCSA. LaCSA archives and processes agro-meteorological and climatological data. By means of such data, it interpolates and provides agro-meteorological services to end-users. The system generates and delivers agro-met services to farmers by analyzing the meteorological and agriculture data. 

Farmers are active participants in achieving objectives to enhance capacities to analyse, and share climatic information efficiently, advancing efforts to achieve targets for SDG2. So far, the number of beneficiaries reached through the public announcement system is estimated to be 25,295 in Luang Namtha, Savannakhet, Saravan, Champasak and Vientiane provinces with approximately 67.3 percent of target farmers finding favor with the initiative. Facebook is also used to reach out to audiences with a total reach surpassing 100,000 and resulting in some 2,714 page followers.

In partnership with the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA),FAO assessed the effectiveness of short message service (SMS)-based crowdsourcing as a tool to forecast palay (unmilled rice)production and to analyse the crop situation in the Philippines. It provides a valuable supplement to traditional macroeconomic forecasts by improving the accuracy, speed of generation, and reliability of circulated data.

The issue

Getting an accurate census for the forecast of crop production in the Philippines through traditional methods (i.e., surveys) has always been a challenge due to the limited resources of the government and the country’s archipelagic geography. Technology presents a viable option to address this gap.

The action

Agricultural technicians, who served as “agents”, spearheaded the recruitment of data contributors. The data contributors registered for identification and sent palay-related information on a monthly basis. The registration and data collection were handled by the “Crowdsourcing Data Collection and Quality Control System” (CrowdSS) developed by the Systems Development Division (SDD) of the Information Technology and Dissemination Service (ITDS) of the PSA.

After each monthly data collection, selected forecast information such as yield and production assessment were shared with the contributors through SMS. Before the end of each quarter, the contributors’ evaluation of the project was solicited as inputs for the overall assessment of the initiative. The participation of the contributors was recognized through tokens and certificates. FAO also supported related capacity building to equip the implementing team with necessary knowledge and skills for the execution of the project.

Expected results

Crowdsourcing and using SMS for mobile data collection have the potential to be an effective tool in forecasting palay production/yield. The study was able to produce yield statistics and assessment of palay production and situations on a monthly basis from the information directly given by the farmers. Moreover, significant factors affecting the assessment of palay production were also identified using statistical analysis. The time for the consolidation of results was significantly reduced relative to the existing surveys, since there were no field interviews and encoding of survey returns.

This method has cost-saving advantages too.  However, in the context of agricultural statistics, it is imperative that the data set be thoroughly examined and validated before processing it further for analysis.

Geographic focus: The Phlippines

In partnership with the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA)

The Indian government sees entrepreneurs with passion as the ideal individuals to tackle problems using innovation and drive conversations at the intersection of agriculture, finance and IT.  One collaborative partner is the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

As part of its innovation programme, ICRISAT launched the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform, a public-private partnership initiative aiming at upscaling its technology and research outcomes through agribusiness ventures and advocating sustainable interventions with partners to benefit smallholder farmers, youth, and women in the rural community.

The issue

India is the largest country in South Asia and has a panoply of governance and socioeconomic structures. In such a complex system, contradictions in the development of the agricultural sector are almost inevitable: Agriculture is a major industry and yet the majority of the world's malnourished live in India. Poverty is exacerbated by climate change impacts. Smallholder farmers are the most affected by climate change, especially in the semi-arid and arid areas. They also face financial debts and unavailability of affordable  technological  solutions  to  improve  their  productivity and lift them out of poverty.

The Indian government, together with several public and private partners, is working to shift the agricultural model to reduce the investments of smallholder farmers, increase productivity while preserving the natural environment, and democratize digital innovations to increase efficiency, attract the youth, and support farmers to make their best decisions to manage risks and maximize economic opportunities.

The action

ICRISAT launched the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform. The platform aims to connect with other stakeholders in the agri-innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to foster the growth of agribusiness ventures and sharing of knowledge and information that will help in improving the livelihood of the rural community and enhancing the contribution of the non-farm sector to local economic development. The platform encompasses four projects, namely Agri-Business Incubator, Innovation and Partnership Programme, NutriPlus Knowledge Programme, and Intellectual Property Facilitation Cell.

Expected results

The convergence of technology with distressed sectors like agriculture is the key to empower smallholder farmers and to improve productivity. The initiative is very important for the welfare of farmers. It is an example of how technology, science and agriculture extension combined can help farmers enhance their incomes.

The initiative will identify grassroots agri-innovations and support agri-entrepreneurs to establish sustainable agri-enterprises. The platform will facilitate the exchange from ICRISAT and its partners to the private and public sector. Finally, linking smallholder farmers to different stakeholders across the agricultural value chains and promoting value addition to farm produce

will result in socio-economic development and new livelihood opportunities for women and youth.

Geographic focus: India

In partnership with ICRISAT

Soil fertility is the backbone of agricultural systems and plays a key role in determining food security. In Sri Lanka, soil fertility has decreased due to indiscriminate exploitation of land resources in the recent decades. 

Productivity enhancement programmes and fertilizer subsidy schemes in the country paved the way to dramatic increase of agrochemical usage. High doses of fertilizer only promotes excessive vegetative growth and does not contribute to an economic yield increase in most of the crops. Furthermore, high use of fertilizer makes crops more susceptible to pest and disease attacks and promote weed growth, resulting in additional application of pesticides and weedicides to avoid yield losses. This leads to many issues such as contamination of water, soils and food systems by agrochemicals.

The issue

Sri Lanka needs to increase food production while sustainably improving soil health. For over 70 years, prolonged and over-use of chemical fertilizers has depleted soil fertility, contaminated water, soil and food systems, increased vulnerability to pest and disease, promoted weed growth and decreased production.

The action

Soil test kits and plant test kits were developed to encourage farmers to test their soil fertility level before applying fertilizer. Farmers can use the soil test kit to determine the soil pH (level of acidity or alkalinity) suitable for food crops and the estimation of phosphorous and potassium availability in the soil, while the plant test kit is used to estimate the nitrogen and potassium availability. Test kits and trainings were provided to agriculture instructors, who promoted the use of the equipment among farmers.

A free mobile application was developed. It is available in local languages and is a user friendly and a low-cost way to assess the results of the soil and plant tests. Results from the test kit can be analysed by matching the colour intensity through the mobile application. The app helps to ascertain the fertilizer requirement for an exact geographic location and crop variety.

Expected results

The use of mobile soil test kits paved the way to assess the site-specific fertilizer requirement. Through this intervention, it is possible to reduce the application of inorganic fertilizer by 30–35 percent. It was proven that reduced fertilizer application has no negative effect on crop productivity.

Geographic focus: Sri Lanka

In partnership with the Sri Lanka Department of Agriculture

 Farmer Field School (FFS), FAO’s front-line innovation, is a participatory learning approach that emphasizes problem solving and discovery based learning. It enhances farmers understanding of agro-ecosystems, leading to production systems that are more resilient in local conditions with an optimized use of available resources. FAO has been incubating, nurturing and  promoting Farmer Field Schools for over a quarter of a century.

 In support of a more effective FFS monitoring system, ICT systems can ensure interactive  and timely feedback is provided in case of need. This especially addresses concerns when master trainers and programme managers cannot readily access FFS programmes. Using ICT, facilitators and farmers are able to access important information such as for field problems, where technical expertise is needed, as well as report on the quality of FFS activities.

The issue

Farmer Field Schools face two major stumbling blocks: farmers’ literacy and field facilitators’ quality assurance.

The cornerstone of the FFS methodology is agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA), a key tool  to enhance farmers’ capacities in data collection and analysis for understanding the agro- ecosystem and making informed decisions on their crops and commodities. The method presents a reasonable level of complexity in its numeric and textual data. People who had not received a formal education can easily become isolated and may not contribute because they are embarrassed. Achieving a quality ecosystem-literacy programme remains a challenge for farmers with low literacy rate.

For monitoring purposes, facilitators should keep meta-data record of session activity and submit the reports capturing daily performance of participants. The activity requires considerable off-field time, and when is paper-based it often leads to delayed data collection and faulty consolidation of facts on farmers’ learning, particularly in remote areas. Quality assurance and consistency of the agreed curriculum becomes then a challenge.

The action

To address the farmers’ literacy aspect, FAO Pakistan introduced a colour-based visual analytical universal education learning process named VALUE everyone, also known as JAM’s4Colors. The method uses a colour coding mechanism for mapping numerical data to visual representations. It allows the farmers to intuitively evaluate data distributions and to  easily grasp the agro-ecosystem information at hand without an interpretation of the numerical values. JAM’s4Colors provides equal opportunity to all participating farmers in the season-long FFS programme for eco-literacy services, regardless of their age, educational background,and income.

Using ICT, facilitators and farmers are able to access important information such as for field problems, where technical expertise is needed, as well as report on the quality of FFS activities.

FAO Pakistan developed an e-FFS android mobile-based data collection and management system, designed to ensure seamless and near real time data collection and reporting of FFS performance.

Results:

On the farmers’  literacy  front, the current practice proved to be two times more efficient than the old one as it enhances more group discussions among the members of participatory FFS. The visual and analytical learning model is applicable for all type of participatory field school learning programmes for crops, commodities, ecosystem, and community actions.

On the monitoring front, data received through the e-FFS system was a 100 percent accurate and consistent. Farmers are getting access to the improved technologies and contents related to their school sessions. The evidence captured for the delivery of interventions is available online with controlled access to all relevant stakeholders. Farmers are able to understand the actual spatial spread of interventions, which helps them in improving their seasonal planning.

Geographic focus: Pakistan

In partnership with the Government of Pakistan.