Join remotely the Action Line C7 - Building a Framework for Digital Innovation in Agriculture (Session 278)

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Telecommunication Union invite interested persons to join remotely the WSIS session 278 - Building a Framework for Digital Innovation in Agriculture.

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About this meeting

The food and agricultural sector is going to face enormous challenges to feed the 9.6 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050, and food production must increase by 70% by 2050. Digital innovation, which means transforming ideas into value in a sustainable way, is key transforming the food and agriculture sector to address these challenges and achieve the SDGs in line with the WSIS Action Lines.

Innovative use of digital technologies contribute to improving livelihoods of farmers, increase nutrition and food security, reduce poverty, and provide solutions to better adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture. In addition, innovation and ICTs help us to improve society productivity and to reach the most vulnerable.

Promoting the concept of innovation as transforming ideas into value also means building cross-industry multi-stakeholder partnerships and networks to explore, test and replicate new technologies, processes and capacity development for agriculture and food systems development.

Within the scope of the framework are initiatives like the WSIS, ITU-FAO co-organized regional and global Hackathons to promote competitions and projects to develop/prototype innovative applications and support the arising of start-ups and young developers and entrepreneurs. An example in FAO is the partnership with Google Earth Engine (GEE), leveraging Google's computing platform to run geospatial analysis. In partnership with one of the largest private telecommunication companies, Telefonica, FAO is piloting the use of remote sensing and the Internet of Things (IoT) for water productivity in agriculture.

Source: FAO/WSIS Website