The third week of the e-forum discussion on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition continued with participants sharing tips on different investments that are needed to reap open data benefits. The question for week 3 was: What investments are needed to reap open data benefits and what precautions are needed to prevent damage to vulnerable farmers from opening data for agriculture and nutrition? Summary of contributions In this section a number of interesting contributions were made to the forum. Dr Muchiri opened the address with a powerful contribution that steered much debate from...
As promoted on AIMS We are pleased to announce three upcoming webinars in English, French and Spanish about developing search strategie for researchers. We will demonstrate how a well formulated search strategy can facilitate literature search on the AGORA platform via Summon and on other platforms. AGORA provides access to peer-reviewed journals, dataseta and e-books in agriculture and related biological, environmental, social and other research domains . AGORA’s main purpose is to improve the quality and effectiveness of agricultural research, education and training in low- and middle-...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently held on the 27th of June a seminar entitled, " Towards Inclusive Rural Communication Services: Contributing to Poverty Reduction and the SDGs ". This seminar is timely in that FAO recently aligned its strategic objectives with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is an interest in reaching out to the rural communities, and in particular smallholder and family farmers face social, economic and environmental challenges and access to information can make a huge difference in allevieting poverty. In 2014, FAO...
Youth employment should be at the center of any strategy to face economic and demographic challenges in Africa, the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization José Graziano da Silva told a joint African Union - European Union meeting, hosted at FAO headquarters in Rome on July 2nd, 2017. In 2014 alone, about 11 million young people entered the labor market in Africa. Fostering sustainable agriculture and rural development is essential to absorb these millions of youth looking for a job. The problem is that young people see few opportunities in remaining in the traditional...
The second week of the e-forum discussion on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition continued with participants sharing examples and case studies on open data in agriculture. The question for week 2 was: What is the potential for open data in agriculture and nutrition? Does open data benefit and damage farmers, especially smallholder family farmers, women and the youth in developing countries? What case studies can demonstrate the benefits and/or damages of the use of ICTs and Open Data? Summary of contributions The Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative...
Technical seminar and launching of e-learning course on communication for rural development Date Tuesday, 27 June 2017 - 09:00-13:00 hrs Location Mexico Room, FAO HQ, Rome, Italy Description The FAO Office of Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development (OPC) has organized, in collaboration with...
The first week of our e-forum discussion on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition generated many insightful contributions. The discussion explored the crossroads between ICTs and issues around Open Data in agriculture and nutrition. The question for week 1 was: What role can ICTs play in using Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition for farmers, especially small holder family farmers, rural women and youth engaged in agricultural livelihoods? Summary of contributions Participants looked carefully at the different steps that are necessary to collect quality data, make them accessible...
Corto & Fieno Rural Film Festival Date 15th, 16th and 17th September 2017 Location Omegna and Miasino, Lake Orta, Italy Description Corto e Fieno is a Festival dedicated to rural cinema. The Festival aims to examine the persistence of rural culture in contemporary society through the various...
The World Summit on the Information Society Forum ran from 12 to 16 of June 2017, in Geneva - Switzerland. WSIS Forum 2017 is an annual event, and this year's edition called for a closed alignment of WSIS and the SDG process . Therefore, the WSIS Forum 2017 served as a platform for discussing how ICTs aid the implementation of the SDGs and their targets. In this meeting, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was represented by a team lead by Mr. Samuel Varas (Director, Information Technology Division) who gave a statement on behalf of FAO's Director General, in the High-...
FAO introduced a new and updated FAOSTAT website , making the world's most comprehensive statistical database on food, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, natural resource management and nutrition even more accessible. The updated web tool - in its fourth edition - incorporates multiple technology improvements as well as various easy-to-use innovations, full mobile device compatibility and new download options, which will significantly enhance the overall user experience. New FAO STAT Website FAOSTAT offers free, open and simple access to time series and cross-sectional data from 245 countries...
Technical seminar and launching of e-learning course on communication for rural development Date Tuesday, 27 June 2017 - 09:00-13:00 hrs Location Mexico Room, FAO HQ, Rome, Italy Description The FAO Office of Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development (OPC) has organized, in collaboration with...