The finalists of the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize In the beginning of the year we posed the question, Can ICTs be used to fight pest’s outbreaks ? Such as the Fall Armyworm? At that time the two initiatives by Farm Radio Trust and CABIs Pest Risk Information Service) PRISE stood out. Recently, we just announced FAO and Pennsylvania State University launched the Nuru app for the Fall Armyworm. In 6 months, thanks to the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize, a number of ICT-based initiatives have come to the fore. The Finalist in the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize On March 28, 2018, Feed the Future and its partners...
The conference aims to foster an exchange among stakeholders on knowledge and best practices regarding the interfaces between agriculture, youth employment, entrepreneurship, ICT innovations, leading to prioritizing interventions going forward.
Small holder farmers are increasingly being exposed to loss of crop due to climate related risks caused by climate change. In this light, Weather Based Crop Insurance Schemes (WBCIS) were created with an intention to provide protection to the farmers against adverse weather incidence. When a disaster strikes, one important aspect is assessing the loss at farm level. Can technology help, well we just learnt that the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed WheatCam, a picture-based insurance (PBI) app that farmers can download on their smartphones. The Indian...
News Release as published on FAO Website 25 June 2018, Rome - The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and Pennsylvania State University joined forces to develop and launch an innovative, talking app - Nuru - to help African farmers recognize Fall Armyworm, a new and fast-spreading crop pest in sub-Saharan Africa, so that they can take immediate steps to destroy it and curb its spread. Fall Armyworm first appeared in Africa in 2016, in West Africa, and then rapidly spread across all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, infecting millions of hectares of maize, and threatening...
The Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS) is a monitoring and education tool that feeds several platforms that are used to make decisions about Fall Armyworm (FAW). Data are inputted via an app for smartphones, which provide exact locations of the source of the information. Data can be collected on FAW prevalence in fields (infested crop plants) or from pheromone traps that attract adult moths. Data collection is done using FAO’s FAW Guidance Notes and is available in five languages. The app also provides basic background information on FAW and will soon incorporate an...
During the East African Farmers Digital Conference , Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KARLO) launched 14 agribusiness apps to help farmers in making farming choices and decisions. This development comes as agricultural industry in Africa is experiencing a growth in technology driven applications – from drones, apps, GIS and many others. These digitization efforts in agriculture allows farmers to access markets, improve their farming practices as well as to predict weather accurately. KARLO seeks to give farmers research based information they need, and the organization...
This meeting is held within the CTA's transforming Africa's agriculture project, which aims to establish business-oriented and youth-led UAS service providers in countries where enabling UAV regulations are in place.
A promising practice on the use of ICTs in weather-data for farmers Many small holder farmers in developing countries have faced huge challenges as a result of climate change induced weather effects. Most of these farmers rely on traditional methods to understand weather predictions. Localised weather data is essential for farm based decisions such as when to plant, yet farmers can access reliable and usable weather data. If such information is available, the quality is poor or it’s inaccessible to the communities that need it most. In order to support Kenyan farmers, the Kenyan Agricultural...
Unleashing Africa's Next Generation of Digital Innovators The African Development Bank together with The Rockefeller Foundation, Microsoft, and Facebook have launched the Coding for Employment Program during the African Innovation Summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The program will prepare the youth for tomorrow's jobs through a demand-driven Information and Communication Technology (ICT) curriculum and then match graduates directly with ICT employers. This comes inline with African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) strategy (2016-2025) . The bank targets that by 2025, the...
In the just ended European Development Days 2018, The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) sponsored a session on women’s access to ICTs for agriculture. Through this event and supporting women’s access to ICTs for agriculture, CTA is helping to close the gender gap and improve livelihoods. The question of ICTs and Women Within ICTs for development, this event comes heels after the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women and its review on the role of ICTs in empowering rural women and girls encapsulated in the CSW47 Agreed Conclusions . Meanwhile, despite...
The conference aims to foster an exchange among stakeholders on knowledge and best practices regarding the interfaces between agriculture, youth employment, entrepreneurship, ICT innovations, leading to prioritizing interventions going forward.
This meeting is held within the CTA's transforming Africa's agriculture project, which aims to establish business-oriented and youth-led UAS service providers in countries where enabling UAV regulations are in place.
