The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has recently published the issue Number 186 of Spore magazine , which focuses on Big data and climate insurance: Redusing risks and maximizing revenues. Spore Magazine aims to give the reader a global perspective on agribusiness and agricultural development. The topics covered in this issue include the role of ICTs in enhancing agricultural productivity, creating jobs and increasing incomes for young farmers, and the role of ICTs in climate smart agriculture and early warning systems. The following articles are of interest:...
GFAR Collective Action Webinar on Farmers’ Rights Date 19 September 2017. 15h00 Rome time. 2 hours max Description This webinar aims to exchange best practices and information on: how to achieve complementarity in practice between the formal research and smallholder farmers to achieve food security...
Esoko, the platform that sends market prices and agricultural tips to farmers will soon retire its brand. After having begun with professional tips sent to farmers through SMS, the Esoko team started to explore innovations on mobile finance for smallholder farmers. In November 2016, Esoko developed a mobile commerce platform that allows farmers to save and borrow toward the purchase of inputs and to sell their crops. Two very different products were now developed, and the team started to face the first challenges. "Our limited management resources were being stretched thin and neither...
Four international companies were awarded with the Global Data-Driven Farming Prize by the US government’s Feed the Future Initiative on Thursday, September 7th, 2017, for their innovative solutions in using information and communications technology to improve agricultural productivity. The solutions will be tested in Nepal, as the competition aims to give the opportunity to find innovations from around the world and link them to less developed economies, where these solutions have not yet arrived. The four winners were two Nepali firms and a German and a Candian company. Db2Map and PEAT won...
The-Agriculture would like to know from you what you know about the Principles for Digital Development and how they are applied when using ICTs for agriculture and rural development. Would you be interested to learn more about the principles, examples of their application and the difficulties in applying them and how to overcome them, and where to find resources? Let us know by filling in this short survey and we will use your replies to organize an activity on the topic on our platform! Looking forward to hear from you what you already know about the principles and what you would like to...
Wikifarmer is the greatest user generated online farming library. Its mission is to help all farmers across the globe to find valuable information regarding their existing or potential crops and livestock. Through the information it provides, Wikifarmer aims to give practical solutions to farmers. Contributions can be provided from professional or amateur farmers, beekepers, gardeners and professors sharing their knowledge and best practices. Users can submit a new article, edit an existing article, add pictures or videos, request a new article, ask a question about a related issue, or just...
The US Embassy in Nepal organized a ‘Farm to Table’ event on August 29th to identify opportunities to maximize the market potential of Nepal’s agricultural sector. The conference brought together agro-entrepreneurs, buyers, suppliers, financial service providers, and farmers from Nepal and the United States. The main discussion of this round-table was based on finding innovative ways to improve efficiency and maximize productivity in Nepali agriculture. One of the main recommendations was to improve value chains by investing in ICTs connecting farmers to knowledge, market information and...
Mapping crop land is essential for farmers, as rely heavily on it for planning and management. UAS offer a great possibility for farmers as they can map large parts of land with low costs and easy transportation. Geographic Information System (GIS) maps can used both online and offline providing important information for farmers to plan irrigation design, check plant health and even monitor livestock. According to this CTA article, despite the indeniable benefits from using UAS in agriculture, South Africa has one of the most restrictive regulations in the world for commercial use, including...
mrittikā is a soil nutrient analysis and recommendation software. It works thanks the collaboration of agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers: the entrepreneurs offer soil testing services to the farmers, then analyse the results and finally recommend the best possible fertilizers to the farmers. Farmers in developing countries do not have enough knowledge on the quality and quantity fertilizers for their land. This lack of knowledge also applies to the nutrient levels in their soil. Because of this, farmers end up applying inadequate proportions of fertilizers which eventually leads to poor...
(This article was inspired by the recent blog post ‘ Drones in Agriculture ’, posted on 22nd August) Whist we mostly take it for granted, we depend on the farming industry for the food we eat, and therefore for our very survival. A vast proportion of the earth’s land mass is farmland, and farming...
GFAR Collective Action Webinar on Farmers’ Rights Date 19 September 2017. 15h00 Rome time. 2 hours max Description This webinar aims to exchange best practices and information on: how to achieve complementarity in practice between the formal research and smallholder farmers to achieve food security...
(This article was inspired by the recent blog post ‘ Drones in Agriculture ’, posted on 22nd August) Whist we mostly take it for granted, we depend on the farming industry for the food we eat, and therefore for our very survival. A vast proportion of the earth’s land mass is farmland, and farming...2 comments