e-Agriculture Newsletter.March, 2017
e-AGRICULTURE PLATFORM CELEBRATES 10 YEARSDear Reader,
The month of February marked the 10th year anniversary of the e-Agriculture Platform. The platform was launched in 2007 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and 13 founding partners.
By December 2014, the community had grown to more than 12,000 registered members and more than 35,000 followers through social media channels, for example @e_agriculture twitter with 41,000 followers. In the past decade, e-Agriculture has documented many successful projects which have used ICTs to improve farmers’ access to agricultural information and knowledge. One of the early comparative advantage of the e-Agriculture platform was the ‘forum’ discussions which focused on a chosen topics in ICTs and Agriculture. The e-Agriculture Community of Practice will continue to play a role in monitoring new developments, validating models and methodologies, examining emerging trends and further possibility of adoption of emerging technologies in agriculture and rural development. In the coming months, a number of changes will be implemented to usher in improved services and also better align content to the needs of our community. e-Agriculture Survey Results 2017 In the month of January 2017, the e-Agriculture team carried out a user survey in order to get feedback from its community that will inform of the priorities for 2017 and the continuous improvement of the platform.The survey was conducted in the three languages currently used by e-Agriculture platform - English, French and Spanish. Of the respondents who participated in the survey, 357 were in English, 50 in French and 66 in Spanish. Some of the selected findings include:-
The feedback from the survey will be used to improve the current platform and will also be incorporated into the design of the new platform. A new taxonomy has already been implemented that will allow users to view content based on the taxonomy on the Themes and Countries, and Partners . Other changes will be announced as they happen in due course. e-FORUMSThe e-Agriculture team periodically organise forum discussions on a topic relevant to ICTs and agriculture.In the month of March 2017, the e-Agriculture ran the first forum of the year. |
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Upcoming Forum: e-Forum on ICTs and Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition Current Forum: The Role of ICTs in Sustainable Crop Production Intensification (SCPI) of horticulture crop based system (mainly fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers). Previous Forum: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Resilience. Download policy brief here |
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To participate in any forums on e-Agriculture, you will need to be a registered member of the e-Agriculture Community. |
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NEWS FROM PARTNERSThe following is a selection of the news received from e-Agriculture partners. The full listing of e-Agriculture partners can be found here |
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ICTUpdate: Open Data benefits for Agriculture and Nutrition This CTA Update newsletter focused on Open Data benefits for Agriculture and Nutrition within the GODAN framework. Of interest is the focus on the impact of open data for farmers and the benefits thereof to smallholders vulnerable farmers. The issue also looks at the Kenyan government to open up its agricultural data through the Open Data Initiative started in 2011. The articles inside the newsletter are:-
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Digital Disruption: farming Transmogrified The WorldBank hosted the seminar, Digital Disruption: Farming Transmogrified, through its Community of Practice for ICT in Agriculture held on Wednesday the 25th of March 2017. The seminar brought together private sector actors together in sharing how ICT and digital tools are bringing about surprising and almost magical life-changing transformation (transmogrification) for small and traditional farmers around the world. Different agricultural solutions and digital tool were presented. The panel of speakers were drawn from Hello Tractor, CiBo Technologies, Dobbin International Inc, Plant Village, Vodaphone and Edenred. |
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e-AGRICULTURAL SOLUTIONSThere are a number of ICT related projects and solutions in agriculture and are being covered on the e-Agriculture Platform, some are also mentioned in the news, blogs, policy briefs and forums. Browse this months selection below. |
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eLocust3 eLocust3 is the latest update to the eLocust series that allows national survey and control officers in locust-affected countries to record and transmit data in real time via satellite from the field to their national locust centres. This data is the basis for the global Desert Locust monitoring and early warning system that is operated by the Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS) at FAO Headquarters in Rome. |
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OpenForis OpenForis is a free open-source solutions for environmental monitoring that facilitates flexible and efficient data collection, analysis and reporting. |
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EMA-i EMA-i is a mobile app for reporing timely animal disease to enhance surveillance.Surveillance and early warning of animal disease outbreaks, including zoonotic diseases, with potential public health impact enables national authorities to advise at-risk populations. |
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HIGHLIGHTSBelow we highlight a selection of news published on e-Agriculture, these include news articles on ICTs, activities in the agriculture and rural development. The full news listing can be read here.
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The scope of the e-Agriculture Newsletter is to bring under the attention of the e-Agriculture community recent news, events and achievements in the field of ICTs and agriculture. If you have any contribution, suggestion, or need assistance with the newsletter, please contact us at [email protected].You received this message because you are subscribed to the e-Agriculture Newsletter |
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