End of the forum discussion: overview of case studies on the use of ICTs in SCPI

The online discussion on, “The role of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the Sustainable Intensification of Crop Production (SCPI)” has officially ended.

This has been a very fascinating discussion!. The sharp increase in the number of people joining the e-Agriculture platform over the course of the three weeks as well as the remarkable enthusiasm, with which the topic was discussed put in evidence the significant role of ICTs in sustainable intensification of horticulture crop-based systems. 

Over the course of the discussion forum (06 March to 03 April 2017), 247 new members registered, in addition to already existing members on the e-Agriculture platform. We received a total number of 75 contributions from participants from the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago and Vietnam.

To give you an idea of the cases shared during this forum, you can find a short overview below. For full description of the cases, you can find the entire forum discussion in our forum archives. 

• Coffee and Climate Initiative: Use of affordable sensors to measure climate change adaptation trials and spreadsheet & mobile enabled simulation for decision-making, development of simple heuristic software for farmers to understand risks (Global - Dr Peter Baker)
• The role of urban agriculture and the use of ICTs: Urban gardens to increase vegetable production and consumption and combat climate change (Bangladesh - Ms Mahfuja Parven)
• Important ICT solutions in India: electronic fencing for banana plot, wild animals voice sound generator for areca nut and banana, weather forecast alert for grapes and mangos, moisture sensors in drip irrigation connected to cloud (IoT), ICTs in green houses, sorting of fruits, sequential timers for irrigation, electronic motor pump burning prevention device with alert, communication with the overseas market for grapes, health-care of plants and soil, post-harvest management and storage (India – Mr. Santosh Ostwal)
• Revofarm: Revofarm provides weather and market information as it relates to project wind speed, rainfall, UV index etc. via SMS text messaging system. This information is provided by their business partner in the USA who analysis this data through their systems. (Caribbean Region - Mr. Ricardo Gowdie)
• Ghana e-agriculture programme: The Ministry of Agriculture (MOFA) Information Communication and Technology Unit has implemented the E-Agriculture Programme which is an ICT initiative through the West African Agriculture Productivity Programme (WAAPP) with funds from the  World Bank (Ghana – Yussif Abubakar)
• Signs of Unlimited Love (SOUL) Multi-purpose Cooperative: Social enterprise that uses ICTs to scale up their agricultural activities (Dominican Republic - Mr. Eber Ravariere)
• AGRINETT: Project to produce several applications and crowdsourced mapping tools for farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector (example: Market Watcher, Agri Maps) (Trinidad and Tobago – Mr. Keron BasCombe)
• Five trends in horticulture technology: yield monitoring, precision irrigation, robotics, Internet of Things, Unmaned Aerial Systems (South-Africa – Mr. Wilbert Johnsson)
• YPARD Zimbabwe: Description of possible areas of application for ICTs in horticulture in Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe – Mr. Raymond Erick Zvavanyange)
• USAID funded Agriculture Extension Project in Bangladesh: Implement capacity building and support creation of a farmer’s demand-driven agricultural extension system, synergized by the use of ICTs (Examples: Agriculture Knowledge Bank, Farmer Query System (FQS) for remote agro-advisory service, public extension agents (SAAO) digital diary application (Bangladesh – Mr. Hasib Ahsan)
• Sustainable intensification of strawberry production in the West Bank and Gaza Strip using computerized control system (WBGS): In the WBGS, farmers are achieving a threefold increase in yields with only 70 percent of the water use compared to traditional greenhouse production by growing hanging strawberries. The strawberries are grown in soil-less media using a computerized system controlling the quantity and frequency of irrigation and application of fertilizers. (Palestine – Mr. Azzam Saleh Ayasa)
• ICT System for Increasing Efficiency of Apple-Value Chain (research paper): The purpose of this research paper, as such, is to integrate the information platform for various stakeholders and design an ICT enabled apple supply chain that will benefit millions of apple growers, processors, distributors, dealers, exporters of fresh & processed apple products and above all consumers. (India - Mr. Mukesh Pandey)
• Nano Ganesh: remote control of irrigation: Mobile phones are used to control irrigation remotely and data are collected to optimize irrigation (India – Mr. Santosh Ostwal)
• National Smallholders Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) videos on horticulture: Production of videos to promote good agricultural practices and the use of the videos and platform AccessAgriculture.org (Malawi – Mr. Ronald Udedi)
• Big data for improving farm productivity: Big data technologies aimed at improving the efficiency of farming and in supply chain such as drones, sensors, and other IoT technology, and data analytics to provide decision support to farmers and other players in the supply chain (Examples: CropIn, AgRisk, AgNext Skymet, Stellaps and Airwood) (India – Mr. Peter K)
• Hurudza Case Study: Paprika Growers' Scheme: aGrnomiX, the Agricultural Reference Bureau & Value Chain Linkages Management system designed and developed by G-analytiX, is an innovative system, combining technology and business models, that establishes, or re-establishes, trust in ring-fenced farming value chains (Zimbabwe - Mr. Alan Goodrich)
• Deploying Vegtable Seed Kits to Tackle Malnutrition in Cambodia: The project has partnered with Akvo to utlize Akvo Flow as the survey tool of choice to monitor the training, technical assistance and uptake of technologies of agriculture and nutrition concepts by household garden project clients. (Cambodia – Mr. Stuart Brown)
• HORTIVAR: a geo-referenced database on the agronomic performances of horticulture cultivars in different agro-climatic environments. It contains information about the cultivation of vegetables, roots & tubers, fruits, mushrooms, ornamentals and herbs and condiments. (Global - Mr. Wilfried Baudouin)
• IPP Horticultural baskets to feed the city: In the context of promoting good horticultural practices "producing more with less", the CIAAD, supports family gardens (groups of small gardens from households to increase fruit and vegetable consumption). Together, they propose a new mode of marketing directly bringing together the market gardeners and the consumers of the neighborhood and neighboring communes, thus avoiding intermediaries. (Demorcratic Republic of Congo – Mr. Clément Tenge Tenge
• Geodata to control potato late blight in Bangladesh (GEOPOTATO): GEOPOTATO developed to implement a decision support service (DSS) in Bangladesh for an optimal control strategy of late blight in potato. The DSS  provides farmers with preventive spray advice, it also evaluates past sprays, which may result in curative spray advice .GEOPOTATO aims at becoming the preferred agricultural advice service for over 750,000 small farmers in Bangladesh that grow potatoes on 450,000 ha in the dry winter season (Bangladesh – Mr. Hasib Ahsan)

Thank you to all the people who made this forum possible and especially to all the members of the e-Agriculture Community of Practice who shared their insights and experiences. We have learned a lot. We hope you did too!