The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with their domain knowledge in agriculture and in the use of emerging technologies for food security, agriculture, and rural development and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the lead UN specialized agency on ICTs, together with support from partners such as the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA), have developed the e-agriculture strategy guide. This framework assists countries to develop their national e-agriculture strategy/master plan.

Awareness raising

A joint FAO-ITU E-agriculture Solutions Forum took place in Bangkok on 29-31 August 2016, which raised awareness of around 120 participants from 29 countries in this new area. Click here for more information. The forum brought together e-agriculture solutions that will benefit agriculture stakeholders; shared knowledge on successful e-agriculture solutions and identifyied ways of scaling up implementations; and established an Informal Experts Group for E-agriculture (IEG4E-ag), which includes ICT4Ag solution providers and experts in ICTs.

Building Human Capacity

A FAO-ITU training about developing e-agriculture strategies followed the forum on 1-2 September 2016 to build countries capacities on e-agriculture national planning. Around 36 participants built their capacity in this area. In addition national workshops are held in countries where strategy development assistance is provided to build skills in updating their national strategies.

FAO, ITU and the Gödöllõ Agricultural University co-organized a three-day Regional Capacity Development Workshop on National E-agriculture Strategies in Europe and Central Asia (22-24 June 2015). Held in Gödöllő-Budapest, the workshop gathered 18 countries from the region. Participants from Eastern Europe and Central Asia include decision-makers and practitioners in the use of Information and communication technologies in the sectors of agriculture, forestry and fishery.

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice together with FAO, ITU and CTA organized an online forum on “National E-agriculture Strategy Development”, which took place from 29 April to 15 May 2015.

An E-agriculture Stakeholders’ Consultation was conducted by FAO-ITU-CTA from 3-5 March 2015 in Bangkok. This consultation brought together e-agriculture experts and policy makers from many countries in Asia and Africa.

A number of national experts have also been trained in the process of national e-agriculture strategy development.