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GDCO Sudan Selected as one of the WSIS Prizes 2019 Champion!

By Ahmed Eisa

Gedaref Digital City Organization (GDCO Sudan) e-Agriculture ,, Partnership for Community Development and SDGs Achievement project has been selected as the WSIS Prize 2019 Champion for the Category 13 — Action Line C7. ICT applications: e-Agriculture.

The WSIS committee announced the finalists of the WSIS Prizes 2019 with more than two million votes cast by WSIS Stakeholders’ community.

Out of 1064 nominated ICT success stories from around the world, following a comprehensive review by the Expert Group, of 1140 projects submitted by the WSIS Stakeholders’ community, GDCO project e-Agriculture ,, Partnership for Community Development and SDGs Achievement was among those top five most voted in the Category 13.

Certificates awards

As a WSIS Prizes 2019 Champion, GDCO will be awarded with a Champion’s certificate from the ITU Secretary-General during the special event dedicated to the achievement of the WSIS Prizes 2019 Ceremony, on Tuesday, 9 April 2019 in Geneva, where the Eng Ahmed Eisa the chair of GDCO is invited to take part and use this opportunity to further promote the project.

WSIS 2019 Prizes

The WSIS Prizes 2019 Winners will only be announced to the public during the WSIS Prizes 2019 Ceremony at the WSIS Forum 2019 from 8-12 April. Ahmed Eisa the chair of GDCO is invited to take active participation in the World Café focusing on WSIS Prizes 2019 Winners and Champions on Thursday, 11 April 2019 12:30-14:30 hours (GMT +1).

WSIS Prize Laureates (2012-2019) For the first time since WSIS Prizes were established in 2012, all former winners and champions (the category Champions was introduced in 2016) to establish a special group with a focus on the promotion of awarded projects, WSIS Prizes, and information and communication technologies for development.

WSIS team will use this opportunity to shape the work-plan of the group and set up roles of members and overall objectives. A special event dedicated to this activity will be held on 10 April 2019 in ITU HQ.

Learn more about this project here

• The e-Agriculture project @ISAF
• Community Development 
• Project Social Media -  Twitter | LinkedIn | Flickr | Youtube 
• Project website 

Acknowledgements. The blog text was published by originally on the uniteIT e-Inclusion Network 

The blogs on e-Agriculture are intended for knowledge sharing and they do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Food and Agriculture Organization or imply an endorsement.

How blockchain can help smallholder farmers

by Imaran Haider

The agricultural business has revolutionized in recent years but still faces multiple handles. The supply chain has been faced with the non-transparent, inefficient and noncommunicating network made up of processes, data, actors, and products. Disconnection and lack of transparency complicate issues of fair pricing and quality of products.

The need for data integration has resulted from the regulatory pressure, scandals and food crises. Transfer of funds to business partners in other countries without delay or worry of fraudsters. Blockchain will play an important role in supply chain intelligence for technology that facilitates easy traceability of product information. What this technology has brought African must embrace to eliminate the dreaded scourge of poverty.

Food traceability

Blockchain technology you can trace an apple to the grower immediately. Supply chain is more transparent with blockchain. It helps in food safety responsiveness since the information about a food origin is instant; it gives information that consumers expect. Specific food products are traced at each time hence reducing food waste. Example, contaminated food products can be detected on the shelves and quickly removed.

Reduced transactions and fair pricing

Blockchain provides an open platform for both supplier and buyers to negotiate for reasonable prices of their goods. Suppliers can make direct mobile payment transactions to the buyers. This eliminates intermediaries and brokers. Retailers, farmers, and manufacturers can claim premiums of some products by using this technology. It has been referred to as distributed ledger since it shares information across many synchronized computer networks. This greatly helps an African farmer easy access to the international market.

Reduces human error

Digital technology reduces financial and physical losses attributed to human negligence and failure. The workforce can be reduced when services are automated hence cutting on wastage and misuse of resources. Blockchain help farmers minimize on future losses by availing relevant data regarding the type of crop and possible diseases to attack the crop. It builds trust and decreases buyers default that leads to 43% wasted food produced.

Better access to financial grants and loans

This technology makes it easy for farmers from developing countries to access financial help since many farmers from these countries cannot afford the capital to modernize their farming. Mobile banking keeps track of the ledger account for easy entrée to financing. Financial access to African farmers has remained a constraint with an estimated 2% of financial institutions lending the agricultural sector. Blockchain technology can provide a decentralized platform that gives transaction history and a reliable farmer’s identity. The digital inform enables farmers to acquire loans.

Used in crop insurance

Farmers have been faced with unpredictable weather condition is the advent of agriculture. It has been a difficult task for farmers to claim for their damages since most of them in the developing countries don’t keep records of the doings. But with the introduction of this technology verification is easy and first. Insurance providers and farmers have been depending on inefficient technologies and legacy to foot the claims. However, with the setting in of Blockchain, the sector now faces disruptions and has the opportunity to effect change.

Blockchain technology has the prospective to solve problems in the agricultural and food industry tremendously. Farmers in the developing world have always impressed technology that delivers real value and makes sense. Present day farming will be improved if blockchain technology is impressed. The challenge to this technique is connecting viable business model technology and compelling cases. From digital identification management to a micropayment system, blockchain based resolutions has been dabbed to leapfrog nonexistent and traditional Africa’s infrastructure and push the new era into inclusive growth.

Agri360 is an online platform that connects farmers, suppliers, buyers, processors, and financial institutions. The farmers build up transaction history in this process, get right supplies at cheaper rates and sell their products to the customer directly at higher prices

The original blog was published here

Website  - https://agri360.io | Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Agri360io-247696009228111/ | Twitter - https://twitter.com/agri360io | Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/agri360io/ 

“The postings on this blog posts are my own and do not necessarily represent FAO’s views, positions, strategies or opinions.”

Combining IoT and Predictive Analytics in Agriculture

The Agricultural sector is moving towards data-driven transformations. Farmers and traders are moving towards technological advancements, adopting data analytics and smart farming technologies.

Issues in Agricultural Business

One of the most important and great pain points in agricultural business is to predict events that will show the results.

There is a great pressure on the farms that are within the markets due to rising production costs.

According to UN DESA report, the global population will be approximately 9.7 billion by 2050, up from 7 billion at present adding great pressure to the market.

Simply increasing the land cannot be a feasible solution for many farmers to grow more crops. Hence, technology plays a vital role in making the better use of available space.

How IoT and Predictive Analytics can solve the problems

Data can be collected from these agricultural businesses thereby leveraging technological innovations for better surveying.

With the help of IoT devices we can analyse the status of the crops by the capturing real time data from the sensors.

By collecting data from the sensors and applying predictive analytics we can get insights that help to make better decisions related to harvesting.

Conclusion

With the growth of population at a rapid pace could mean that every agribusiness needs to increase their productivity over the next 35 years and hence with the help of predictive analytics even the most specific problems can be matched.

In the era of smart agriculture, IoT and Big Data Analytics can help power efficient operations around the world. Combining IoT with analytics in agribusiness can help get accurate predictions for market and crop conditions thereby increasing their yields and profits.

More from https://www.marketgalee.com/analytics

Energy Smart Agriculture

Energy is needed in all steps along the agrifood chain: in the production of crops, fish, livestock and forestry products; in post-harvest operations; in food storage and processing; in food transport and distribution; and in food preparation.

Direct energy includes electricity, mechanical power, solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. Indirect energy, on the other hand, refers to the energy required to manufacture inputs such as machinery, farm equipment, fertilizers and pesticides.

The type of energy we use in the agrifood chain and how we use it will in large part determine whether our food systems will be able to meet future food security goals and support broader development objectives in an environmentally sustainable manner. Agrifood systems not only require energy, they can also produce energy. For this reason, agrifood systems have a unique role to play in alleviating ‘energy poverty.

The ‘green revolution’ of the 1960s and 1970s addressed food shortages, not only through improved plant breeding, but also by tripling the application of inorganic fertilizers, expanding the land area under irrigation and increasing the use of fossil fuels for farm mechanization, food processing and transport.

However, cheap energy sources appear to be becoming progressively scarcer and energy markets more volatile, and this has triggered higher energy prices. Our ability to reach food productivity targets may be limited in the future by a lack of inexpensive fossil fuels. This has serious implications both for countries that benefited from the initial green revolution and for those countries that are looking to modernize their agrifood systems along similar lines.

Modernizing food and agriculture systems by increasing the use of fossil fuels as was done in the past may no longer be an affordable option. We need to rethink the role of energy when considering our options for improving food systems.

• Globally, the agrifood chain consumes 30 percent of the world’s available energy – with more than 70 percent consumed beyond the farm gate.
• The agrifood chain produces about 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. . More than one-third of the food we produce is lost or wasted, and with it about 38 percent of the energy consumed in the agrifood chain.

Improving energy access to impoverished communities is essential if the poverty reduction targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be met.

Almost 3 billion people have limited access to modern energy services for heating and cooking, and 1.4 billion have zero or limited access to electricity (UNDP/WHO, 2009). Without access to electricity and sustainable energy sources, communities have little chance to achieve food security and no opportunities for securing productive livelihoods that can lift them out of poverty.

Renewable energies such as bioenergy, solar, wind, hydro and geothermal can be used in agrifood systems as a substitute for fossil fuels to generate heat or electricity for use on farms or in aquaculture operations.

If excess energy is produced, it can be exported off the property to earn additional revenue for the owners. Such activities can bring benefits for farmers, landowners, small industries and rural communities.