One of the main issues farmers face is the lack of data on their land and crops, and the same thing could be said of the national level. One solution for this are ICT toold which provide cheap, fast and reliable information on crops and yelds both to farmers and researchers or governements. AgriNeTT is an e-agriculture project that focuses on empowering the agriculture sector through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). AgriNeTT built an Agriculture Open Data Repository that houses different data sets from institutions and associations, including farm level production...
In Summary ICTs are very useful in agricultural extension and advisory services and in facilitating reaching out to family farmers Extension and Advisory services play a crucial role in promoting agricultural productivity, increasing food security, improving rural livelihoods How have ICTs been applied in extension services M ost of the family farmers in developing countries live rural areas and are in most cases divorced from technology and vital agricultural support services needed to carry out farming activities. Extension and advisory services are relevant to smallholder farmers, who...
After a two-year ban of unmanned aereal vehicles for non-military reasons in Kenya, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has approved draft regulations on the commercial use of drones in the country. The law will be released soon, according to governemnt officials. Kenya is the second African nation after Rwanda to grant the permission to fly drones for commercial use. An article released in May 2016 by the Daily Nation newspaper, Kenya's largest, reported that more than 1,000 applicants were already seeking regulatory approvals to operate drone-based transport services in Kenya. Among...
Agricultural insurance is essential for smallholder farmers, as plots of land are small and the consequences of crop diseases and climate change effects can be disastrous. Yeld loss and damage monitoring and verification can be long and laborious task, causing huge delays in settlements. Although new technologies have been applied, drones, micro-satellites, digital photography can help improve the monitoring of crops and yelds for smallholders and insurance companies. Remote sensing can be a key tool for farmers to prove their crop and harvest loss to insurance companies. At the same time,...
The e-Agriculture is a platform of choice where individuals interested in ICTs and agriculture visit regualrly. Are you have a non-commercial workshop, conference or seminar in the areas of ICTs in agriculture? Do you target farmers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in agriculture? If yes, we can list your event in e-Agriculture events section. We are building a 2017 catalog of such events and we welcome your submission. These events could be in English, French and Spanish primarily or in any of the FAO/UN languages. Events Details To be included the event should have the following...
The Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) promotes evidence-based decision making by collecting and disseminating information on policy information through a freely accessible web-based tool. The FAPDA tool provides an electronic repository for food and agriculture policies in over 130 countries. The repository presents itself as a map with the different countries coloured according to the coverage of their policies. A free text search is also available. The policies in the repository can be filtered by Country/region , Date , Policy decision and Policy framework . For each...
A new open-access Nutrition Knowledge Bank has been created as part of a GSMA mNutrition initiative to help tackle malnutrition in Africa and Asia. The information will be shared through text messages, voice messages and factsheets. The project aims to reach 3 million people in 12 developing countries . Malnutrition is believed to be one of the main plagues in developing countries although it being a problem that can be tackled through information and knowledge dissemination. In the whole world, one out of three people suffer from some form of malnutrition. Poor health is just one of the...
The Internet of Food & Farm 2020 (IoF2020) project investigates and fosters a large-scale implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) in the European farming and food sector. With a €30 million budget co-funded by the European Union, the project has the potential to bring a paradigm shift in this domain, by drastically improving productivity and sustainability - source . It will demonstrate the added value of smart webs of connected objects, that are context-sensitive and can be identified, sensed and controlled remotely in the agri-food sector. The project has started on January 1st 2017...
Rural mobile connectivity is still poor in Africa, according to the GSMA Mobile Economy Africa 2016 Report. Mobile connectivity can help smallholders get access to relevant market information and financial services, which are essential for their development. Affordability is another key issue, as the report states that in countries such as Chad and Niger, for example, "mobile broadband represents around 200% of the annual income of the bottom 20% of the population." Nevertheless, mobile financial services are hugely important in sub-saharan Africa, with the region representing 63% of active...
Family farmers need information and technology tools that can help them thrive and feed a growing population, with challenges like climate change and natural resource scarcity making agriculture more knowledge-intensive, according to FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. "Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can have a profound impact on the efficiency, resilience, and inclusion of poor family farmers," Graziano da Silva said. This is why FAO is pushing ahead with a digital strategy that aims to support the world's most vulnerable through knowledge sharing and bottom-up...
