In a recent article on Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe explores how digital technology is poised at providing a solution to increase farm productivity in Africa. In this article he reviews the food challenges affecting Africa such as weather changes, rural-urban migration that deprives farming communities of young people and deforestation amongst many challenges. While African governments have employed many policy instruments to improve farm productivity, yields are still marginally improving. The article notes that African entrepreneurs are interested in how farmers work and how...
The first beta release of the FAO Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) portal is available as of 14 April 2017. The FAO portal monitors and reports on agriculture water productivity over Africa and the Near East. The portal provides open access to the water productivity database and allows for direct data queries, time series analyses, area statistics and data download of key variables associated to water and land productivity. The portal provides information on variables such as water productivity, land productivity, above ground biomass production,...
Agricultural work in mountainous areas such as grass cutting is done manually. Because of the many slopes it is difficult to introduce a robot. At the same time, there is a huge labour shortage in japanese agriculture as the rural population is aging and the young are not attracted by the agricultural sector. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will work on the development of an unmanned mowing robot. The new unmanned vehicle is based on a passenger type mowing machine, but obviously much smaller. It has been miniaturized essentially by changing the power from engine...
Global Forest Watch (GFW) is an interactive online forest monitoring and alert system designed for users to access the information they need to better manage and conserve forest landscapes. The mission of the Global Forest Watch is to provide the most precise information about the status of forest landscapes worldwide. GFW works in collaboration with NASA , Google and the University of Maryland to collect data on forest change which is displayed on an interactive map. Watch this introductory video by the Global Forest Watch: GFW is free and enables users to work with a wide variety of tools,...
Today 17th of May 2017 marks the World Information Society Day, a day that was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly resolution, following the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. The main objective of the day is to raise awareness of societal changes brought about by the Internet and new technologies.It also aims to help reduce the digital divide.The theme for WTISD-17, "Big Data for Big Impact," focuses on the power of Big Data for development and aims to explore how to turn imperfect, complex, often unstructured data into actionable information in a development...
Are you a researcher or a development practitioner from a low or middle-income country? Do you have an idea for research or an innovative social development project focusing on building skills and generating employment in agriculture, manufacturing or digital technology? Do you know someone else who may be interested? The Global Development Network (GDN) is offering six finalists the chance to win a prize of up to US$30,000 for their creative proposals under this year’s Global Development Awards Competition, an innovative awards scheme for development practitioners and researchers across the...
Since September 2016, Tanzania's government deploys drones for land mapping in rural areas in order to stop frequent clashes between farmers and cattle herders over land and scarce water resources. "The use of drones helps us to define the boundaries of plots of land on the ground with great accuracy," said Samuel Msaki, a senior land mapping official at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), capture high-resolution images that can be used to conduct precise aerial surveys so that national planners can identify and digitize actual...
Literacy Bridge was founded in 2007 to improve livelihoods through comprehensive programs that provide access to locally relevant knowledge. Its ‘Talking Book’ is a simple and low-cost audio-based mobile device that allows people with minimal literacy skills in rural areas, without electricity or internet access, to get access and share knowledge on agriculture and health. The Talking Book can speak multiple languages and can play content on different topics based on the knowledge of local experts. It also allow recording onto it, so that users can create and document their own knowledge...
RevoFarm is a Jamaican based app designed to connect farmers to markets and market data. Farmers send an SMS with their available crops and the information is uploaded on the website. Consumers, which can also include supermarkets who want fresh produce from farmers, can then search the RevoFarm marketplace (on the website or on the app) and find fresh farm produce closest to them. The app also supplies farmers with valueable information to plan their planting season, based on projected weather patterns, crop marketability and soil type. Farmers can also rate and comment this information...
Ari.farm is a new agricultural app based in Stockholm and designed to bring nomadic Somali livestock farmers into the digital economy. The concept on which the project evolves is called “crowd-farming,” similar to crowd-funding but adapted to agriculture, consisting in connecting farmers and investors through a digital platform. The Ari.farm mobile application permits users to purchase and invest in livestock in Somalia with the help of a smartphone. Users can buy animals such as goats, sheep, cows or camels which are then raised and cared for by the nomadic farmers. Profits are then shared...
