The Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS) was created by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) as a response to the generalized food crisis of the early 1970s. Over the years, GIEWS has established itself as one of the world’s leading source of information on global food security. The GIEWS website provides access to food security related information at global, regional and national levels in the form of reports, country analysis and web-based tools dor data analysis. A subscribtion option has also been created for users to get the latest...
The European Commission presented on Thursay, May 4th, "Digital4Development", a strategy to mainstream digital technologies into European Union development policy, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The EU lacks an appropriate framework for mainstreaming and ensuring an effective delivery of digital technologies and services. Digital technologies can be very useful in key areas for development, such as agriculture, job creation, access to micro-finance, education and health. The Digital4Development project is intended to be part of overall development...
The GSMA mAgri Programme forges partnerships between mobile operators, technology providers and agricultural organisations. Although it has enourmous potential, Mexico seems to have been left out by ICT for agriculture initiatives. This article presents seven reasons for which Mexican agriculture should invest in ICT related projects to lift farmers out of poverty and into the 21st century. 1. The needs of Mexican farmers are huge 3.9 million farmers out of 5.3 million in Mexico earn of less than USD 1,000 per year. 61 per cent of Mexican farmers live in poverty. The reasons for this...
The UNESCO Chair in ICT4D is convening a workshop on Friday the 16th of June at the 2017 WSIS Forum which will be held in Geneva. This workshop will coincide with the recent publication of a new book entitled Reclaiming Information and Communication Technologies for Development This workshop is held under the premise that the global spread of ICTs has increased inequality, and that the poorest and the most marginalised have failed to sufficiently to benefit. The workshop objectives and purpose are aptly stated in the announcement:- The workshop will explore whether the continued focus on the...
The proliferation of mobile phones across the world has enabled financial institutions to take advantage and introduce services accessible through mobile handsets. A scoping study has explored the challenges of implementing mobile-finance in low-income communities and also evaluated secondary data from online discussion and webinars. The study was done by two researchers at the University of Machester and raises very interesting questions into the application of mobile finance for low income countries. The following questions are answered in the paper:- What are the potential benefits of m-...
Youth, Agripreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals Workshop Date 8 May, 2017. 09:00-16:00 Location Sida Headquarters, Valhallavägen 199, Stockholm, Sweden Description The aim of this workshop organized jointly by SIANI and SLU Global is to develop ideas and tools to engage the african...
By the year 2050, the world population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion: demand for food will grow dramatically. Following a present trend, 2/3 of this population will be concetrated in big cities. In sub-saharan Africa, the number of 15-24 year olds will dramatically increase. The challenge at this point is to engage the youth in Africa to work in agriculture and develop its potential. The problem is that young generations living in rural areas prefer to migrate to big cities in search for a stable job instead of trying to develop the rural areas in which they grew up. The aim of this...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a publicly accessible near real time database (WaPOR) using satellite data that allows monitoring of agricultural water productivity . The WaPOR monitors and reports on agriculture water productivity over Africa and the Near East. The database uses satellite data to help farmers achieve more reliable agricultural yields. This tool provides open access to the water database over underlying maps - the tool allows quering of data; time series analyses, area statistics related to water and land use assessments. The...
The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has published a guide or laws governing the use of UAVs. As of April 2016, 73% of ACP countries did not have any rules or regulations in place; 19% had some regulations in place; and 8% were in the process of formulating them. The data gathered in the course of the study have been published on a site hosted by The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) and are accessible at w ww.droneregulations.info . The use and application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or popularly known as drones is increasingly becoming common in...
The online discussion on, “The role of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the Sustainable Intensification of Crop Production (SCPI)” has officially ended. This has been a very fascinating discussion!. The sharp increase in the number of people joining the e-Agriculture platform over the course of the three weeks as well as the remarkable enthusiasm, with which the topic was discussed put in evidence the significant role of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop-based systems. Over the course of the discussion forum (06 March to 03 April 2017), 247 new...
Youth, Agripreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals Workshop Date 8 May, 2017. 09:00-16:00 Location Sida Headquarters, Valhallavägen 199, Stockholm, Sweden Description The aim of this workshop organized jointly by SIANI and SLU Global is to develop ideas and tools to engage the african...