The African Green Revolution Forum is underway in Accra, Ghana and the FAO E-Agriculture team is participating and facilitated a parallel session on Establishing the International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture, on the 3rd of September and the FAO CIO director also spoke on the Panel Discussion on Evidence-Based Leadership and Data Systems on Tuesday, 3 September from 14:30 – 16:30 On the 4th of September, FAO team is invited to attend and participate to the Digital Agriculture Knowledge Sharing side event, which will see practitioners such as CTA, Dalberg, GSMA, MaMo Panel and...
The African Development Bank and its partners on the 13th of June, 2019 launched the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) , designed to aid safety and expansion of digital financial transactions in Africa. The Fund, launched at the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Government of Luxembourg, as initial contributors. The fund will deploy $100 million in grants and $300 million in the form of debt from the Bank’s ordinary capital resources by 2030, to...
The International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), has launched the Call for Applications for the first edition of its Arab Women Leaders in Agriculture, Awla Fellowship . The Call is open to Arab women researchers from the MENA region, with a strong and demonstrable interest in national, international and global agricultural challenges. The theme of the first Awla Fellowship being " The role of women in agriculture prosperity ". Candidates must be able to present professional and academic credentials in the field of agriculture. Watch the video about the call below The Call for...
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...
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 Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTAs) project, ‘ Transforming Africa’s Agriculture: Eyes in the Sky, Smart Techs on the Ground ” was this week showcased at FAO headquarters in Rome, at the IFAD Governing Council Meeting. Besides the stand display, there was a presentation on the last day where drones for agriculture were presented. This project was nominated for the WSIS Prizes 2019, category AL C7 – E-agriculture , whose voting is underway at the time of writing. About the project CTA is assisting African start-ups in acquiring capacity to deliver Unmanned...
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 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have recently published a title called, ‘ Blockchain for Agriculture, Opportunities and Challenges ’ as part of the E-Agriculture in Action series publications. This is part of the collaboration of working together of the two UN Agencies to work together to promote the use of sustainable information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture. The focus of the publication is on blockchain technology in agriculture. The aim of the book is to demystify the technology,...
The agricultural ministers of 74 nations who attended the just ended the 11th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference, held during the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture issued a communique that affirms support to farmers through digital innovation. The statement acknowledge the projected increase in world’s population amidst the current hunger level of, over 821 million 9 people in the world who are suffering from hunger. The ministers called for digitalization in agriculture, innovation and smart solutions in increasing agricultural production and commitment to the goals of the 2030...
