Documents and publications
There are a number of publications in ICTs for agriculture that are published by e-Agriculture, and also in conjunction with partners. This section collects these publications and those from our partners that are relevant to ICTs for agriculture.
Farmers’ willingness to pay for a digital extension tool in Sri Lanka. An economic application of list experiments
11/11/2025
List experiments utilize indirect survey questions to reduce social desirability bias in measures of sensitive behaviours and sentiments. While often used to assess retrospective behaviour or opinions of respondents, list experiments have not been widely applied to assessing “deep” parameters of economic models, such as willingness to pay. Common stated preference methods of estimating willingness to pay may be impacted by social desirability bias, particularly when a product has been provided to survey recipients for free.
Categories: extension-advisory services , digital financial services
Gender-responsive digital extension and advisory services in Bangladesh and India
10/11/2025
Digital technologies are rapidly transforming how agricultural knowledge and services are delivered, offering promising avenues to bridge gaps in access to information, markets, and decision-making for rural populations. In South Asia, particularly in Bangladesh and India, digital extension and advisory services (EAS) are increasingly being adopted to support smallholder farmers. However, these innovations often fail to adequately account for gender-based disparities in access, use, and benefit.
Categories: extension-advisory services
Artificial intelligence for food safety. A literature synthesis, real-world applications and regulatory frameworks
28/10/2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly applied in food safety management, offering new capabilities in data analysis, predictive modelling, and risk-based decision-making. A review of the literature identifies three primary areas of application: scientific advice, inspection and border control, and operational activities of food safety competent authorities. Five country examples with the real-world use cases illustrate diverse uses of AI tools, including pathogen detection, import sampling prioritization, and language models for regulatory data processing.
Categories: Artificial Intelligence , food safety
Brief on Innovation Portfolio of the Digital agriculture. FAO Programme Priority Area
23/10/2025
In mid-2024, FAO conducted two workshops to pilot the innovation portfolio approach within the Digital Agriculture PPA, assessing 62 projects totaling approximately USD 270 million. Using criteria such as scaling stage, strength of evidence, and required capabilities, the assessment found most investments concentrated in mid-to-late scaling phases, with limited focus on early-stage or exploratory innovations. Participants emphasized the need to diversify investments, strengthen digital ecosystems, and build capacities—especially around AI and scaling partnerships.
Categories: capacity development , Digital technologies in Agriculture (ICTs)
Bhutan rural and digital finance ecosystem assessment 2024
08/10/2025
The Bhutan Rural and Digital Finance Ecosystem Assessment 2024 was jointly conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Bhutan Development Bank Limited (BDBL) under FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative. The assessment is part of a regional project to improve inclusive rural financial systems in five Asia-Pacific countries.It responds to challenges in rural Bhutan, including poverty, limited access to finance and markets, gender and digital gaps, and climate vulnerability.
Categories: financial inclusion
Global AgriInno Challenge
07/10/2025
The Global AgriInno Challenge, co-organized by FAO and Zhejiang University, is an annual open-innovation sprint that scouts, trains and funds youth-led solutions for sustainable agrifood systems. Each edition kicks off with a world-wide call, narrows hundreds of submissions to 8–12 finalist teams, then plunges them into a 36-hour Innovation for Good training session with mentors, investors and FAO data sets. Finalists pitch live for seed grants, a seat at the FAO Science & Innovation Forum, and fast-track entry into the Digital Agriculture Bootcamp.