Originally written by Benjamin Addom and Sabdiyo Dido, and published by CTA on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 As COVID-19 continues to devastate lives all over the world, agriculture and food systems come under critical strain. Recessions, food shortages, hunger and malnutrition are feared to be likely, with grave impact on vulnerable communities in developing regions…
Month: June 2020
CTA’s expertise informs concept for new International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture
Originally published by CTA on Thursday, 12 March 2020 Extensive consultation with CTA and other stakeholders has resulted in a concept note for the establishment of a new International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture. Once operationalised, the Digital Council will advise governments and other relevant actors with the aim of realising the immense potential…
Innovative digitalisation project transitions into promising business
Originally published by CTA on Wednesday, 11 July 2019 A recurring question in agricultural development is how to transition successful donor-funded initiatives into self-sustaining, smallholder-focused businesses. One of CTA’s most innovative digitalisation projects, the Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service (MUIIS), is proving it can be done. The MUIIS project was established in September 2015 with support from…
Why Europe should partner the world’s smallholders to adopt big tech
Originally written on Monday, 4 February 2019 Despite the rise of industrial and intensive farming, it is the world’s 800 million smallholder farmers who continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of global food security. Family farms with modest plots of land make up around 90 per cent of all agricultural operations and are responsible for producing more…
ACP agribusiness digitalisation – Big data analytics a pathway towards sustainability
Originally written on Tuesday, 11 December 2018 In his five years working on ICT for Agriculture (ICT4Ag) at CTA, Benjamin Addom has seen plenty of digital agricultural projects come and go. Here he discusses what it takes to ensure that promising ICT4Ag initiatives have staying power – and how big data analytics can help make…
Attracting private sector investment to digitalise African farming
Originally written on Friday, 7 December 2018 Agriculture in Africa presents a unique investment opportunity. The African Center for Economic Transformation estimates that the continent holds around 600 million hectares of uncultivated arable land, representing almost 65 per cent of the global total. Of the land already cultivated, close to 95 per cent is still rainfed,…
Creating ICT opportunities with the apps4ag database
Originally written on Wednesday, 21 June 2017 In ICT Update and on websites as ICT4D, CTA has covered the explosive growth and proliferation of digital and mobile phone technologies for agriculture. Now CTA takes the next step with developing the Apps4Ag database, a comprehensive, up-to-date and responsive database of ICTs including mobile, web, animation, audio,…
Alternative extension models vs. ICT enabled systems
Originally written on Thursday, 8 June 2017 There is no doubt that agricultural extension and advisory services (EAS) have been going through a tumultuous crisis over the past years. But, from my over 25 years of experience as a farmer, agricultural extension practitioner, and ICT for development specialist, I have come to believe ICTs are…
Building the ICT infrastructure of MUIIS for SMS delivery
Originally written on Wednesday, 21 December 2016 The development of MUIIS technology suite involves a team of technology, communication, data, agronomy and extension experts working together to create a package of bundled services enabled by ICTs. The bundled information services (agronomic, weather and insurance) will be delivered to targeted customers through different delivery channels. SMS…
The web: a thing of the past, or here to stay?
Originally written on Saturday, 1 August 2015 How relevant and useful are web tools for ICT4Ag today? Are they on their way out, or on the contrary, is the web a nucleus from which other channels spread? Is the web still a relevant environment for communicating agricultural information to users? Or is it doomed to…
Digitalisation and Smallholder Agriculture 