The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in conjunction with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are organizing a parallel session during the WSIS 2019. The session is entitled ‘ Communities of Practices and Digital Integrated Platforms ’ and will be held on the 8th of April 2019 in Geneva, Swirtzerland with a possibility of online participation Details of the Session 16:30 - 18:15 on Monday the 8th of April 2019 Room K2, ITU Montbrillant Remote participate online click here About the session: Communities of Practices and Digital Integrated Platforms By 2050,...
The Technologies and Practices for Small Agricultural Producers (TECA) is an online platform that gathers successful agricultural technologies and practices to facilitate knowledge exchange and help family farmers in the field. Recently TECA has launched the first moderated discussion on the topic of Agricultural Mechanization and is done between FAO AGPM and the Young Professionals in Agriculture and Rural Development (YPARD). The online discussion will be held from the 3rd to the 15th of April 2019 and is addressing the question, “ Can mechanization drive youth into agriculture in Sub-...
There has been much hype about blockchain and their application in various sectors. In the agricultural domain, e-Agriculture has reported some of these initiatives. We came across an interesting blog by Sam on Disruptor, and provides interesting use cases of this technology in western and advanced farms. The technology has been applied in “managing warehouses, silos, and supply chains more intelligently, or utilized in the field as a tool to transmit real-time data about crops and livestock”. The following use cases are explained in detail, Overseeing Farm Inventory Enhancing Agricultural...
The study entitled Arab Horizon 2030: Digital Technologies for Development is a central part of ESCWA efforts to promote radical policy changes towards utilizing digital technologies for sustainable development in Arab countries. It sets out proposals and recommendations for harnessing these technologies for social, economic and human development opportunities. The following seven thematic policy areas relevant to digital technologies are identified: digital strategies; information and communication technology (ICT) sector; ICT infrastructure; cybersecurity; the digital divide; e-applications...
FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia has launched a call on digital innovations for agriculture in that region. The call aims at collecting lessons learned and recommendations for the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) or digital innovations in the sectors of agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry or rural development. Selected innovations will be disseminated on online platforms, social media and will be part of an online FAO publication on the use of digital technologies for agriculture in Europe and Central Asia. Topic The innovations you wish to...
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 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...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors...
ITU has just announced 90 Champions of the WSIS Prizes contest. From the announced 90, 18 projects will be selected to be Winners will be awarded for each of the 18 categories of the WSIS prizes. The submission phase opened on the 2nd of July 2018 to the 5th of December 2018 and 1,149 submissions were received (of which 1062 were found exceptional and were nominated for the WSIS Prizes 2019). Champion Projects under Action Line C7 E-agriculture The Action Line C7 (E-agriculture) is jointly facilitated by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International...
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...