Forum ICTs for Resilience
Do you have concrete examples of successful use of ICTs in resilience? (November 30th)
14/11/2016
Do you have concrete examples of successful use of ICTs in resilience?
Welcome to the second question of the forum. Under this question our experts will have the opportunity to share their successfull experiences with ICTs for resilience. We are of course also looking forward to read about the experiences from all the members of the Community of Practice! Do not hesitate to ask the experts or contributers specific questions on the experiences they have shared. Anyone who shares an experience can add links to his/her post to documents or websites with more information. And again - let us know if you would have any question for us!
Hello colleagues. Just to start today's discussion, I would like to share our experience in using ICT to support smallholder farmers in Mozambique. As soon as I manage to understand how to attach a document, I will share it with you
Using ICT to Improve Access to Agricultural Inputs for Family Farmers in Mozambique
About 80% of Mozambique's population depends on agriculture as their main source of income. However, agriculture (including livestock, forestry and fisheries) is the sector that contributes less to the country's GDP, indicating that the productivity of the agricultural sector is very low compared to other sectors of the economy.
The gap between demand and supply of financing for family farmers in Mozambique is very large and affects the majority of farmers in the country. With about 3.8 million family farmers producing approximately 95% of national agricultural production and cultivating an average of 1.5 hectares/family, family farming in Mozambique is responsible for ensuring good part of the food and nutritional security of the country, and is responsible for employing about 86% of labour force at national level.
In many cases, farmers are unable to buy inputs at the right time and in the right amounts. The lack of seasonal credit lines often forces farmers to sell to middlemen at a low price. Moreover, farmers who are already highly exposed to natural disasters go into debt with few prospects to break free of this burden.
The Government of Mozambique and FAO agree that “smart subsidies" programmes through the use of vouchers, can be a powerful tool to facilitate access to seeds, fertilizers and other inputs needed for production.
Rural extension, when practiced effectively, can help solve many of the constraints related to access to finance and therefore support the expansion of the use of agricultural inputs by family farmers.
A combination of financial and extension services can help financial institutions overcome limitations in designing and distributing financial products suitable for family farmers. For example, the agricultural extension service could assist farmers in obtaining and using credits through value chain development programs; this would result in an institutional strengthening of the public sector and the creation of a favourable environment for the entry of financial institutions.
When combined with financial instruments (e.g. vouchers, credit lines, crop insurance, etc.) agricultural extension services can play an important role in mitigating risk and increasing the confidence of farmers in financial institutions.
It also requires a better coordination between rural extension services (public and private) and development partners along the supply and demand process in order to help to share perspectives, disclose financial instruments and provide technical assistance that simultaneously addresses the various constraints of the value chains.
In short, there is a great opportunity to boost the development of local economies through specific policies (e.g. increased productivity, promotion of mechanization for small-scale farmers, access to credit and markets, agribusiness, etc.) in support to family farming.
We know however that there are a number of barriers that must be removed in order to use the most of the farmer’s productive potential. In Mozambique, the percentage of farmers with access to credit has declined steadily over the past 10 years and inefficiencies in the production and distribution chain reduced the competitiveness of domestic products. The limited development of small and medium-scale agro-industry further reduces market opportunities for family farmers. With no market prospects and no support for hedging, it is difficult for farmers, especially small farmers, to have access to the capital needed to invest and expand their farms.
Bearing in mind the above-mentioned barriers, FAO launched at the beginning of the agricultural season 2015/2016, an electronic voucher scheme in order to improve market access for agricultural inputs (mainly seeds and fertilizers) and the distribution of quality agricultural inputs through the involvement of various agro-dealers.
The electronic voucher system is a financial inclusion and a flexible market development tool that allows farmers to buy certain quantities and types of inputs from providers (agro-dealers) that accept the vouchers as payment. The agro-dealers redeem vouchers with a profit margin previously agreed.
In other words, the electronic voucher is a credit to enable farmers to access and use improved inputs to increase their yields. It is simply a discount for the purchase of inputs, co-financed by the beneficiary farmer.
A significant advantage of the electronic voucher system is that farmers will have more freedom to decide what, where and when to buy their inputs, thus ensuring that they are the main decision makers in the process.
The electronic voucher scheme, the first of its kind in Mozambique, has been tested in Manica Province and is gradually replacing the "paper voucher" which has been used by FAO in Manica, Zambezia, Nampula and Sofala provinces since 2013.
The electronic voucher should ensure (i) increased access to and use of improved inputs to increase production, know-how, food security and income of family farmers; (Ii) the development of the marketing and distribution sectors of seeds and fertilizers.
It is expected that the voucher system could also help in the management of other inputs and services provided to farmers by state institutions and cooperation partners, and in the long term, help in the development of an efficient private sector input distribution sector.
The program targets two groups of beneficiaries; (I) small emerging farmers and (ii) subsistence farmers. Special attention is given to rural women and women heads of families.
How the e-Voucher Works in Mozambique?
The electronic voucher is an alternative to the paper voucher using an electronic technology. Recipients receive an electronic card that contains a subsidy and is activated upon payment of the beneficiary's contribution. The programme is implemented in 11 districts of four provinces in Mozambique:
→ Manica: Barue, Gondola, Manica and Sussundenga
→ Sofala: Buzi, Gorongosa, Maringue and Nhamatanda
→ Zambezia: Alto Molocue and Gurué
→ Nampula: Ribaue
Types of Packages
Package A: Subsistence Farmers
Approximately 35 USD for the purchase of OPV seeds of maize and beans and post-harvest insecticide.
Farmer’s contribution = 30% of the value of the package
Package B: Emerging Farmers
Approximately 130 USD for the purchase of seeds of maize (hybrid or OPV), beans, oleaginous, fertilizers, etc.
Farmer’s contribution = 50% of the value of the package
The pdf with more information from Walter de Oliveira - FAO - Mozambique can be downloaded here
ps. To all participants - you can upload your documents by creating a knowledge based item or send them to me ([email protected]) and I will do it for you and provide you with a link so you can add it direcly to your post !
Thanks for this fine description of the e-voucher scheme. Some lessons learned from the e-voucher scheme in Malawi during a recent evaluation http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pa00m8qj.pdf (see Annex 2 - second pilot) include;
1. Training of farmers as well as the participating agrodealers is critical. There were farmers that didn't realize their scratch card was unique to them so inadvertantly exchanged their scratch card for somebody else's scratch card when villagers would congregate. Also, they didn't realize they could damage the scratch card with sweat and dirt if they carried it in their pocket. Also, the agrodealers wanted more training on how to navigate the drop down menus on their phone as well as on the problem solving protocol with the Ministry of Ag.
2. The agrodealers almost universally lost money. Essentially they subsidized the e-voucher scheme. Yet they all participated in the second season. To our obvious query about why they participated in the second season they revealed they did not have the option to not particpate because voucher subsidies (whether paper or electronic) constituted upwards of 85% of their overall business activity. It seems the agrodealers were the unsung heroes of this two year e-voucher scheme!
3. One reason the agrodealers lost money was due to lack of connectivity. Transactions also took a long time - and therefore often 'timed out' - because of the numerous steps involved to navigate the user menu.
In spite of the mixed reviews from farmers and agrodealers it seemed they all recognized the significant advantages of e-vouchers and would embrace the next scheme if the obvious shortfalls were addressed in the program design.
We’ve been undertaking work with coffee farming communities in Uganda, looking particularly at how mobile could be used to improve the resilience of coffee cooperatives.
But, before diving straight into ICT intervention, we first did two things:
a) Benchmarked the resilience of the cooperatives using our “RABIT” (Resilience Assessment Benchmarking and Impact Toolkit) tools.
b) Benchmarked the contribution of ICTs to the cooperatives’ resilience.
Combining those two – particularly looking for those areas of resilience that were weak and in which there was little use of ICTs so far – we produced a prioritisation plan for use of ICTs to further strengthen agricultural resilience.
More details if you’re interested at: www.niccd.org/resilience
Thanks Richard for the reminder that benchmarking can test assumptions and highlight challenges or issues that may have been overlooked. Then to use the assessment results to form a plan with clear priorities. It all sounds so simple but these steps can often be lost in the excitement to just get something deployed.
Thank you for today's contributions. Very interesting experiences are shared and there are even opportunities to compare similar experiences. We are looking forward to more tomorrow.
Please let us know about your successfull experience on the use of ICTs for agriculture and tell us in detail WHY is was successful. What was done to make it successfull.
Thanks so much for all your contributions thus far.
My comments here tie together questions 1 and 2.
Under question 1’s discussions on resilience, SHARBENDU and MALEPLA, among others, mention human centered design and the need for designing ICT solutions that match actual needs of communities on the ground (esp.). RICHARD HEEKS asks whether resilience is ability to recover from short-term shocks or adapting and transforming to respond to trends and enable prevention of future shocks. I think resilience means both, I agree with HEEKS that the latter is particularly crucial. For it is the key to a community’s ability to adapt and respond through its own initiative and on its own terms (essentially, the key to an authentic resilience).
To enable this authentic resilience, or the ability of a community to drive its own resilient behavior, we need local communities, institutions, and individuals to have the skills, knowledge, and infrastructure to use and deploy solutions(ICTs-based and otherwise) on their own terms. They need to be able to respond autonomously to the demands and needs they themselves identify within their own communities without suffering the lag time and miscommunication (ie. NON human centered design) that so often accompanies reliance on external support (be it subject matter expertise, technology infrastructure, or funding).
So this brings me to question 2: In addition to specific short-term applications like early warning systems, e-vouchers, and real-time data collection, ICTs can support a “long view” and help develop that local human capital and technical capacity necessary for authentic community resilience.
National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) repeatedly demonstrate their ability to do just that.
Through the World Bank, much of our work on ICTs and resilience deploys first through last mile digital and mobile connectivity and works with communities to use that connectivity on their terms, where agriculture applications and digital financial services play a central role. Through these engagements, NRENs have repeatedly contributed to achieving both these goals.
Though it manifests in several oraganizational forms, an NREN is typically a non-profit consortium of member universities that operates and manages its own broadband network connecting universities, much like a community run ISP, or a community network. NRENs also tend to offer cloud computing, federated ID, eLibraries, and data and research sharing platforms, paired with rural and peri-urban community liaisons based in universities. Particularly in the case of rural institutions that are connected to the NREN network, students and professors act as instrumental “information wayfarers” who a] develop their own technical capacity through their studies and scholarship, and b] forge connections and facilitate information exchange between non-university connected community members who have needs and concerns, and digital entrepreneurs, researchers, or other technical experts connected to the network and/or the universities.
NRENs’ contribution to nationaICT infrastructure and the growth of locally developed ICT applications is notable. In the African context alone (there are regional and national RENs globally), we see NRENs facilitating a growing information exchange between universities and rural/agricultural communities in Uganda (RENU), Kenya (KENET), ZAMBIA (ZAMREN), and Sudan (SUDREN). A new NREN beginning its launch process in Somalia (SOMALIREN) will be an exciting arena to watch.
An area of future work that could deepen NRENs’ contribution to community resilience would be stronger links between NRENs organizational and broadband networks and the digital entrepreneurship ecosystems associated with tech hubs and incubators.
We are also still exploring how best we can work with NRENs and universties to engage even more directly with rural and "off the grid" communities and expand communication and knowledge networks beyond urban spaces, so any comments, questions, or suggestions would be wonderful.
I understand that NREN work is really excellent as far as connectivity is concerned referring to possible ICT applications through the mobile or internet connectivity.
Please go through my contribution for Q4.Till the time develpper for ICT does not meet the rural community in person, understands their challenges, exchanges pains and fun moments and actually merges among their routine, we can not say that we are connected with them 100%. The emotional connections can only be established when a person meets with the counter part heart to heart with mutual understanding and then only the rural community opens up. We have tried one innovative concept and that proved to be game changing. We decided to invite few villagers to the urban homes and explore the urban comforts and amenities along with city tours etc.and also we went to their villages staying with them as per their routine. This personal connection gave tremendous confidence amnng the villagers and they trusted on us and were ready to build long term relationships with them. This connection helped us understand them well as well as explain them the benefits of modern technologies for them.
With the help of NRENs, we can establish the preliminary contacts and plan the direct visits on different occasions happening in the rural which excites them about our arrival and the games of REAL CONNECTIONS are triggered. But, one strong thing should be born into mind that we are not connecting them for just our selfishness but we are connecting them out of love towards the community. Then and then only, the bridge can be established.
I think we can write so many pages on this because myself have pioneered the work of ICT for 8 years by physically visiting more than 500 villages. Please let me know whether I am rightly addressing your query.
Santosh: Thank you for responding to this call for comments, and the example you provide in Q4 of user-targeted ICT integration is very in-depth. Thank you for providing such detail.
I completely agree with your point that in-person interactions between ICT developers and the (often rural) community members for whom ICT solutions are being developed is key. And if developers come out of these communities or are embedded within these communities, even better.
The exposure visits you describe between urban and rural project beneficiaries that you describe sounds very effective, both in terms of building rapport, and facilitating user centered design thinking about the new community context in individuals from both urban and rural environments. What you describe is exactly what we are planning on doing with NRENs in Somalia, Zambia, and Sudan, and which has already been taking place to some degree in Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.
As you suggest might be the case, one challenge we find is centrally integrating this type of program implementation into the NREN's main work plan or business plan, since it ends up being an application of connectivity rather than part of deploying connectivity itself. If they are not a central feature of activities, interactions between (often urban-based) developers and rural community members can be few and far between, often in part due to difficult travel logistics. One area we are exploring is better linking community based organizations to the NREN network rather than relying on students and faculty to make these connections. Another area is strengthening partnerships between resident tech hubs/incubation centers (housed within the university or the main urban center/urban hub) to the NREN and university network since directly interacting with rural communities is increasingly becoming central to their mandates.
Thank you again for your comments.
I am going to share a thrilling journey of Nano Ganesh ICT and how it took an impactful shape in the time line of 25 years and made a drastic socio-economic change in the irrigation operations in rural sector in farming as well as drinking water supply management in the villages..
Nano Ganesh is an electronics hardware + software GSM device integrated with the existing switch gear of electric water pumps and can be accessed by a mobile phone from any place for the purpose of controlling and monitoring.
After installing Nano Ganesh device at the water pump end
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- A farmer can switch on /off the water pump with the help of a mobile phone from any distance..
- He understands on his mobile phone the on-off status of the power and pump
- Farmers get alert messages on his mobile phone about different events about pump operations..
- In few latest models, Nano Ganesh can be connected to a server for cloud based services like analytics.
Hence, farmers are not needed to physically visit the hazardous distant pump sites in the remote locations for controlling and monitoring of the water pumps. .
Background - The whole story of Nano Ganesh ICT evolutions is basically to solve the problems of the farmers in controlling the water pumps.
The challenges faced by the farmers and ICT developer were almost the same.
- Distant locations of the water pumps in hazardous areas near river, wells, ponds, lakes etc.
- Difficult terrains through dense plantation or cultivation.
- Fear of animals on the way to water pumps.
- Erratic power due to heavy density of electricity distribution in the irrigation zones.
- Odd hours or night operation schedules due to availability of the power during night hours.
- Shock hazards due to wet area and electricity leakages near the water pump.
- Every season is the challenge for accessing the water pump - Rains, scorching heat, winter.
- Expenses on travelling - an operator, motor bike, and fuel etc.
- Fear of theft of water pumps and accessories like cable, panel and starters etc. and consequent incidences to replace the whole stuff.
To address these challenges of the farmers in accessing the water pumps,we started with low cost electronics devices in 1991 to automatically control the water pumps.The Initial pioneering phase of eight to ten years was filled with all odds for an entrepreneur to be sustainable. The real need of the farmers was identified and fine tuned in 1998 - Farmers preferred low cost remote controlling devices for the water pumps instead of complicated PLC based systems.
With low range radio frequency based remote controllers in 1998, the technology took a revolutionary shape of unlimited range remote controller with the help of a mobile phone in 2004 and went on improving every year after that to the latest cloud based version in 2016.
Though the technology evolution was important, the field implementation and business model is quite a learning part which I would cater subsequently in the coming days.
Nano Ganesh ICT has been selected as the best mobile innovation for the emerging market by Nokia. GSMA has featured it at different platforms. It has been validated under India Innovation Growth Programme hosted by FICCI and The Government of India. The State Government of Karnataka has considered Nano Ganesh as a part of m-Governance programme. The success story of Nano Ganesh has been published by FAO in 2015.
I feel that a real success is - More than 50000 farmers in India have accepted Nano Ganesh ICT as a life changing technology and many are on the way.
Question 1: What is resilience and how can ICTs help resilience programmes or projects?
ICTs is an asset in Agriculture to help resilience programmes or projects and particularly for data collection, management and dissemination and particularly to support Early Warning Systems at national, regional and global level in various areas such as Animal Health, Plant Health and Food Safety to ensure health protection e.g. Mobile technologies such as real-time disease reporting to support animal health systems.
Important to highlight that ICTs can help significantly resilience programmes or projects if strong technical expertise is overseeing this process and making sure that strategies for sustainability of those technology are well designed to include technical advice, policy guidance and advocacy.
Question 2: Do you have concrete examples of successful use of ICTs for Resilience
In response to the challenges that face animal health systems in developing countries in particular collecting and analysing disease data from the field, FAO has been exploring ways of offering innovative approaches and tools to expand the use of personal electronic devices to report key data from disease threats in the field. Some FAO field projects have started to use mobile apps, Small Message Service (SMS) and digital pen technologies to facilitate field disease reporting.
FAO AGAH/Global Early Warning System (GLEWS) Unit developed the EMA-i tool to facilitate real-time disease data collection and reporting to support official veterinary services capacities in epidemiology, reporting, early warning and surveillance.
FAO is implementing some activities in African countries by offering a full package of technical services and tools to veterinary services and stakeholders which include the development and customisation of EMA-i according to national needs, the provision of a secured platform in FAO to host the data for governments and the technical support for the functionalities and flow of communication of the data reported through EMA-i and all the setting up and validation procedures. All this knowledge and technology is developed using open sources and Android technology under the overall development of the FAO’s Global Animal Disease Information System (EMPRES-i).
EMA-i is being successfully implemented in Uganda and with a plan for expansion. Other countries have just started such as Tanzania (Zanzibar) and Mali.
Uganda:
So far EMA-i app has been implemented in Uganda since 2013 and so far in 18 districts, which include all the seven Karamoja districts. Currently there are 169 EMA-i users/reporters in Uganda and a total of 1,158 disease reports have been received during the period of implementation in 18 districts which has increased the sensitivity of the overall surveillance systems and allowing authorities to take measures to mitigate the potential spread of this diseases within the country. The potential expansion of EMA-i has been discussed with the government to expand its development to collect additional information on livestock production and associated parameters.
Mali:
EMA-i is currently implemented under a first phase from November 2016 to April 2017 in eight communal areas of four Cercle in the regions of Koulikoro, Kayes, Sikasso. Criteria to select the areas included safety, accessibility, presence of certain diseases and internet availability.
United Republic of Tanzania (Zanzibar):
EMA-i is currently implemented since June 2016 in Zanzibar and with a plan to expand to the mainland during 2017.
Some useful links:
Information sheet on EMA-i:
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4853e.pdf
EMA-i: a Mobile App for Timely Animal Disease Field Reporting to Enhance Surveillance:
http://www.e-agriculture.org/news/ema-i-mobile-app-timely-animal-disease-field-reporting-enhance-surveillance
EMA-i Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLh9dCWne0o
EMA-i Uganda:
http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/empres/news_020813.html
EMPRES 360 Bulletin – page 12:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3470e/i3470e.pdf
EMA-i Plan in Mali:
http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/empres/news_241214c.html
Thanks for allowing us to contribute to this forum,
Julio Pinto (AGAH/GLEWS)
Fairouz Larfaoui (FCC EMPRES)
Martina Escher (AGAH/GLEWS)
Dear all, to answer the second question of the forum on ICTs for Resilience, "Do you have concrete examples of successful use of ICTs in resilience?" I am going to present the SWALIM SMS-based warning system based in Somalia. I think this is a good example of how ICTs can help overcome challenges such as civil insecurity and help build resilience against natural hazards.
Somalia is located in the Horn of Africa, has a land area of 62 734 000 Ha (hectares); the country has been in conflict for over 25 years, experiences ongoing civil insecurity and faces recurrent localized drought and flood conditions. Due to decades of civil strife, many parts of Somalia are not easily accessible and the natural resources of the country have largely been unmanaged and unprotected - and are thus being diminished and degraded.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated the Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM) programme that serves Somali government institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development agencies and UN bodies engaged in assisting Somali communities whose lives and livelihoods depend directly on water and land resources. The programme aims to provide high-quality water and land information, crucial to relief, rehabilitation and development initiatives in Somalia. The use of ICTs to accelerate, improve and multiply the effects of this work has been a hallmark of the programme since the beginning in the early years of this century and remains a key component.
In anticipation of the effects of heavy El Niño rains in late 2015, predicted to be one of the strongest and most destructive in history, SWALIM developed an SMS-based mobile phone application to capture information about impending flood situations and to warn vulnerable communities along the Juba and Shabelle rivers. This system, known as FRISC/Digniin, was also used to alert fishing vessels and coastal communities when two cyclones swept across the northern coast of Puntland in December 2015, saving lives and averting severe property damage.
The first climate data sent to FRISC was on Wednesday, October 14th 2015. SWALIM collects data sent by SMS on a daily basis to collect climate data from weather stations in Somalia. The system will be in use for as long as the data collected from those manual stations is needed. It will eventually be transferred to the Somalia government, together with other SWALIM systems.
The FRISC/Digniin system is a good example of how development projects can overcome constraints brought on through war and insecurity by leveraging technology. The complex security situation in Somalia led the SWALIM team to think of a way to monitor rainfall and river levels and inform the population on El Niño threats remotely. Through a technology as simple as SMS (combined with a web-based server and a team of experts), a project like this can contribute to saving thousands of lives, as well as water and land resources.
The FRISC/Digniin system is now being adapted and expanded to gather rainfall data throughout Somaliland and Puntland, as well as in the central and southern areas of the country where it is already established.
SWALIM website: www.faoswalim.org
The USDA Forest Service and Environmental Protection Agency have cooperatively developed a knowledge base for assessment and monitoring of ecological states and processes in sixth-code watersheds. The knowledge base provides a formal logical specification for evaluating watershed processes, patterns, general effects of human influence, and specific effects on salmon habitat. The system integrates geographic information system and knowledge base system technologies to provide an analytical tool for environmental assessment and monitoring. The basic objective is to improve the quality and completeness of environmental assessments and the efficiency with which they are performed [Reynolds et al. 2000].
FarmNet is a network of rural people and supporting intermediary organizations, such as extension services, using ICTs and conventional communication media to facilitate the generating, gathering and exchanging of knowledge and information. Operated by farmers and their organizations, FarmNet (http://ftp.fao.org/sd/farmnet.pdf) links farmers to each other and to the resources and services that they need to improve their livelihoods through agricultural productivity, profitability and food security.
aAQUA is an online multilingual, multimedia Agricultural portal for disseminating information from and to the grassroots of the Indian agricultural community. aAQUA simultaneously addresses two major challenges in farmer outreach programs - geographic reach and customized delivery. It answers farmers queries based on the location, season, crop and other information provided by farmers. Agricultural content repositories (Digital Library), Agri-price information (Bhav Puchiye), farmer schemes and various operations support databases (aAQUA-QoS) have also emerged from the experience of aAQUA deployments. aAQUA's large scale deployment provides avenues for researchers to contribute in the areas of knowledge management, cross-lingual information retrieval, and providing accessible content for rural populations [Ramamritham, 2006].
Wen [2007] presents a knowledge-based intelligent e-commerce system for selling agricultural products. The KIES system not only provides agricultural products sales, financial analysis and sales forecasting, but also provides feasible solutions or actions based on the results of rule-based reasoning. The intelligent system integrates a database, a rule base and a model base to create a tool of which managers can use to deal with decision-making problems via the Internet. For offering convenient delivery and user-friendly services to customers, an e-map combined with a GPS is used.
LPCUBE Wise Agri KM™ is an innovative knowledge management solution designed for the agriculture industry. It enriches research and helps researchers to share knowledge and reuse the lessons learned. The collective knowledge base built using this platform can be used to disseminate right knowledge to the farmers at the right time. It enriches farming and ultimately improves agriculture productivity.
Agricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS), website http://www.fao.org/aims/index.jsp, is a portal whose main objectives are: to facilitate collaboration, partnership and networking among partners by promoting information exchange and knowledge sharing; and to harmonize the decentralized efforts currently taking place in the development of methodologies, standards and applications for management of agricultural information systems; consequently, providing a 'one-stop' access to system designers and implementers.
As annouced in the prestnation of the forum, FAO promotes the use of ICTs to reinforce the resilience capacity of states, communities and individuals. Here are some greart examples of successful experiences on the use of ICTs for Resilience documented such as :
eLocust (a detection and early warning tool for Desert Locusts). see good practice fact sheet on http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6058e.pdf
SWALIM (FAO Somalia project on Water and Land Information Management – SWALIM – a breakthrough in mobile data gathering, remote monitoring and dynamic mapping). See the 2016 award as champion in the use of ICTs http://www.fao.org/resilience/news-events/detail/en/c/418025/
OpenForis (a free open-source solutions for environmental monitoring). a video to learn more: https://youtu.be/iIzvMzs1qy0
EMA-i (a moble App for timely animal disease reporting to enhance surveillance) http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4853e.pdf
EMPRES-i (a global animal disease information system): http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/home/en/news_archive/aga_in_action/empres…