In most developing countries due to rural-urban migration, rural communities are losing young people and agriculture is robbed of the needed workforce. The result has been that many smallholder farms have more women and girls remaining on the farms providing bulk of the labour force. Advances in agricultural innovation are important to support rural livelihoods and are poised to support the role of women in our food systems. Furthermore, the digital revolution has changed the way we work and offers opportunities when implemented fairly. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in...
As the WSIS Forum 2019 , a multistakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the FAO Director-General Mr. José Graziano da Silva has delivered a video message to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and delegates ahead of the meeting to be held on the 8th to the 12th of April 2019. The message confirms FAO commitment to ending hunger through using digital technologies to bridge the rural-urban divide; and most importantly he pledged FAO’s commitment to WSIS and FAO's co-facilitation to the E-...
In an opinion piece on CNN Business , the WorldBank Group CEO and interim presidents noted that automation and artificial intelligence (and other disruptive technologies) could revolutionize the industrialized world, and with great potential to the developing world. O n her tweeter account , Ms Kristalina Georgieva noted in order to support Africa’s digital transformation, the WorldBank Group will invest $25 billion between now and 2030 and is aiming to mobilize $25 billion more from the private sector. How can African countries leapfrog themselves for this challenge? In the above mentioned...
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world...
In sub-Saharan Africa and indeed in most of the developing world, women form a greater part of the agricultural labour force. There is potential of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to include women fully in the agricultural systems. The recent ICT Update 90 focuses on Women and Digitization in Agriculture and chronicles the work that The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has done within the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). The interventions deal with CTA’s contribution to rural economies, the growing advancements in digitization and lessening...
The Digital Development for Feed the Future a project within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with their partners published a paper on Digital Farmer Profiles paper. The paper seeks to explain how technologies can be used to include smallholder farmers into the broader agri-food systems; this includes how smallholder farmers can be profiled; how farmers’ data can be shared and how the impact of agricultural services can be measured. Meanwhile, there are 500 million smallholder farmers and it has been a challenge to obtain information to or from these farmers. The...
In sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers are vulnerable to risks associated with changing weather patterns. In Uganda, the SUM-Africa project provides satellite based drought Index Insurance to protect farmers. The SUM-Africa project is supported by the G4AW program of Netherlands Space Office (NSO) and recently a Dutch Company (EARS) signed a long term contract with Uganda Agro Insurance Consortium (AIC) to continue this service. What are agricultural index insurance? Agricultural index insurance products are linked to an index, such as temperature, rainfall, crop yield or...
The e-Agriculture and Aerobotics invite interested individuals to participate in this webinar below:- Title: The impact of Technology on sustainable agriculture Date : 7th of February 2019 Time : 16:00 hrs (Rome Time) [ What time is this? ] Register here Abstract Annually, farmers lose 15% of yield due to pests and diseases, for example this would equate to more than $300 million in South Africa alone. The rise of precision agriculture can not only reduce this loss and increase yields but also ensure that action is taken in a sustainable manner. How can modern technologies such as drones and...
You might be wondering, What is E-KOKARI? E-KOKARI is an interactive voice responsive (IVR) platform developed in Niger and it allows farmers, breeders and buyers to access information, advice, warnings and market prices in the field of agriculture and livestock. E-KOKARI allows farming communities in Niger to access timely and accurate information they need on the farm. In Niger, like in many parts of Africa, the use of mobile phones have increased and while French is a common language – not every farmer prefers it. Hence, E-KOKARI was developed to help farmers to access needed information...
Grameen Foundation is inviting interested individuals to join their twitter chat on Data, Technology and Women’s Economic Empowerment Wednesday, January 30, 2019 Twitter Chat: 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET Facebook Live: 12-12:30 p.m. ET Check your local times here Digital data is driving global economic change. How can we ensure that it also helps women and their families escape poverty? Join Grameen Foundation , Cisco and Accenture for a Twitter chat on new uses of data and technology for women's economic empowerment. Topics will include: Key breakthroughs in using data and tech to improve women's...
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world...
