Question 1: What roles does ICT play in producer organizations? Support examples with specific reference to an organization, the technology tool(s), and content delivered. 

There are many ways that ICT in agriculture will help producers. With technology being more advance in the stages of agriculture, in cultivation such as control of water on the plant, the appropriate  application of fertilizer, weeding, pest control, waiting time for plant to mature, and harvest. All these applications could be manage efficiently with ICT. With ICT the enhancement of these stages could be improved by information and communication processes. Information is vital to farmers for them to be able to manage the stages more efficiently.

Example:

Outline

Changing over to agriculture that uses IT services increases productivity and  maintains stable crop yields and quality.
This solution unifies the management of environmental data obtained by sensors and cultivation records and supports agricultural production activities by providing adequate cultivation information. NEC plans to provide know-how, such as harvesting timing forecasts, by using statistical analyses of accumulated sensing data and production log history and harvesting records from GAP1 management.
This solution will:

• Support the provision of safe and secure agricultural crops through the quality control of production sites and logistics 
• Realize cultivation diagnosis and harvesting forecasts through data collection and storage 
• Provide support for engagement in agriculture and for successors of farming by using stored production know-how

Note 1) Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) is an agricultural production process and a collection of methods applied to agricultural activities for growing safe and healthy food and non-food agricultural products that also takes into account economical, social, and environmental sustainability.

Features

The agricultural ICT solution is applicable to every service since basic functionalities such as sensing data collection, data statistics, analyses, and various data provisions are normally included. NEC provides applications, system platform, network environments, and various sensors that collectively enable companies and network operators to launch M2M services as a one-stop service. Leveraging this enables customers to start up services more quickly and economically than they can when building up an individual system.

Use case

By managing environmental data (e.g., on temperature and illumination intensity) and pesticide spraying data quantitatively, safe and secure crops can be delivered to consumers. The agricultural ICT solution diagnoses crop growth particulars and predicts picking time and crop yields by continuously collecting data.
Agricultural workers have until now passed on technical know-how based on experience, but in the future, they will be able to hand down more explicit know-how based on objective data, which realizes more progressive generational changes and engagement in agriculture to aid the expansion and activation of agriculture business.

http://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/nsp/m2m/prod-sv/prod-sv

Last year, the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) series celebrated its 10th anniversary. The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with INSEAD, initially
began this project to explore the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on productivity and development as a component of the Forum’s
research on competitiveness. To this end, over the past decade the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) has been measuring the degree to which economies across
the world leverage ICT for enhanced competitiveness.

During this period, it has been helping policymakers and relevant stakeholders to track their economies’ strengths and weaknesses as well as their progress over time. In addition, it has identified best practices in networked readiness and designed roadmaps and strategies for establishing optimal ICT diffusion to boost competiveness.

Since 2002, the networked readiness framework has remained stable, aside from some minor adjustments at the variable level to better reflect the dynamic
trends in the technology landscape. This has allowed for meaningful comparisons across time and created a valuable database of technology metrics. However, the
ICT industry has changed dramatically since 2002 and its effects are increasingly transforming our economies and societies.

More precisely, over the past decade, the world has become increasingly “hyperconnected.” We live in an environment where the Internet and its associated
services are accessible and immediate, where people and businesses can communicate with each other instantly, and where machines are equally interconnected with each other. The exponential growth of mobile devices, big data, and social media are all drivers of this process of hyperconnectivity. Consequently, we are  beginning to see fundamental transformations in society.
Hyperconnectivity is redefining relationships between individuals, consumers and enterprises, and citizens and the state. It is introducing new opportunities to increase productivity and well-being by redefining the way business is done, generating new products and services, and improving the way public services are delivered.

However, hyperconnectivity can also bring about new challenges and risks in terms of security, cybercrime, privacy, the flow of personal data, individual rights, and
access to information.

Traditional organizations and industry infrastructures are also facing challenges as industries converge. This will inevitably have consequences for policy and regulation because regulators will have to mediate the blurring lines between sectors and industries, and will be obligated to oversee more facets of each interaction in
a pervasive way. For example, in terms of security and surveillance, hyperconnectivity is transforming the way people, objects, and even animals are being monitored. Experts also predict it will have an impact on inventory, transport and fleet management, wireless payments, navigation tools, and so on. The impact of ICT on different facets of life and work is growing.
In this context, the way we monitor, measure, and benchmark the deployment and impacts of ICT must evolve to take into account the rapid changes and consequences of living in a hyperconnected world.

Reflecting on this imperative of adaptation, a comprehensive review process of the NRI framework has been undertaken, guided by a process of high-level consultations with academic experts, policymakers, and representatives of the ICT industry. The results of this new framework are presented for the first time in this edition of the Report.
 

(http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf)

Priority areas for investment in the agricultural sector

This report is the result of a joint cooperation between the World Bank and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It provides an overview of priority areas for investment in the agricultural sector of Pakistan, which include (i) agricultural research and extension; (ii) the seed sector; (iii) water resources; and (iv) rural finance. Its main findings were presented at the ‘International Roundtable on Agriculture and Water Resources Management’ in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 8-9, 2011.

The opinions expressed in this report are the sole responsibility of its main authors.

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/rust/docs/Pakistan_inside%20pages.pdf

March

2012

Building a regional future

As we all know, we cannot live without feeding and clothing ourselves or taking refuge from inclement weather, and we therefore need to produce increasing quantities of food, energy, and essential goods and services, from pharmaceuticals to weather forecasts to early warning services. At the same time, we are learning about climate change and becoming increasingly aware of the irreparable damage done to our planet, and we are debating plans to reverse (if possible) the most aggressive environmental processes. Agriculture, in the broadest sense, is tightly related to these issues. It has been one of the decisive factors in the biological, social and cultural evolution of humanity.

http://www.eclac.cl/socinfo/noticias/paginas/3/44983/newsletter18ENG.pdf

Mobile Applications for Agriculture and Rural Development

 The dynamic growth of mobile communications technology is creating opportunities for economic growth, social empowerment, and grassroots innovation in developing countries. One of the areas with the greatest potential impact is in the contribution that mobile applications can make to agricultural and rural development (ARD), by providing access to information, markets, and services to millions of rural inhabitants. For both agricultural supply and demand, mobile phones can reduce waste, make delivery more efficient, and forge closer links between farmers and consumers.

(available at http://www.ictinagriculture.org).

It is our hope that this volume will help ARD policymakers and development practitioners moreeffectively harness mobile applications to generate economic and social opportunities with lasting impacts.

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNO…