Articles
Impact Stories
Women-led agribusiness in Samoa reaches global markets
Imagine a small women-led organisation in a remote Pacific island nation supplying products sold in more than 3,000 shops in 66 countries. Women in Business Development Incorporated (WIBDI), a non-profit organisation working with 1,000 farming families in Samoa is doing just that, and much more.
Read MoreAll Eyes on the Sky
Smallholders in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are seeing their horizons broaden, as access to technology brings digital applications to agriculture. In Uganda, a project supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), has forged a partnership with Igara Tea Factory (IGTF) to transform cultivation through digital innovation.
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Blog articles
Building the next generation of farmers in Africa
By helping to integrate farmers into markets, and providing exposure to more information and emerging innovations, farmers’ organisations (FOs) can contribute to boosting employment and incomes across the food value chain, as well as fostering more inclusive growth.
Read MorePathways to scale finance for digitalisation on the path to agricultural transformation
Digitalisation of the financial sector, or fintech, has greatly advanced with payment solutions such as mobile money, which contribute to increased levels of financial inclusion. Despite these, agribusiness still needs to invest in digitalisation to increase productivity and value addition, storage and marketing of agricultural produce so they benefit smallholder farmers and pastoralists.
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Using the e-Granary mobile platform to deliver agricultural information to farmers
ICTs offer farmers a range of opportunities to acquire real-time agricultural information to enhance their production. As such, CTA and AgriCord co-financed a 2018 Pan African Farmers Organisation (PAFO) project to provide access to market-oriented agricultural extension and advisory services, via mobile phones, to smallholder farmers in Kenya.
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Harnessing the benefits of data and farmer’s data right to advance agriculture
Digital farming holds enormous potential for agricultural development, and giving farmers the tools to boost productivity and profitability. Although the benefits of digitalisation are numerous, farmers feel they are not the ones benefiting from the value of data collected on their farms. Ensuring that farmers understand their rights to data, and have access to relevant data, is essential to harnessing the benefits for better farm decision management.
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Agricultural data systems to transform smallholder farming
In the last three years, digitalisation in agriculture has been a core intervention area for CTA. With the support of the Panafrican Farmers' Organisation (PAFO) and additional financial support of AgriCord, a 3-year, CTA EU-Funded €1.2 million project “Data4Ag: Agricultural data systems to transform smallholder farming” focuses on transforming smallholder agriculture through the use of data management by agri-enterprises.
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Background articles
Profiling presents opportunities for smallholders
Aggregating information about farm location and production in farmer profiles helps companies to tailor their support for smallholders, but how can this data be securely managed and transferred to rural farmers for their benefit?
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News articles
Data-driven services for smallholder farmers
Farmer’s organisations are being supported by CTA in data-related activities ranging from farmer registration to extension services.
Read MoreScientific Articles
Actions to turn the power of open data into real impact
At the third international workshop on the impact of open data for agriculture a new action agenda was discussed by a mix of organisations. They concluded that more focus is required on benefits for the less favoured actors, that open data should become a vehicle for multi-stakeholder collaborations, and that assessment of data driven organisational change is required.
Read MoreTranslating complex data into accessible articles
It sounds simple, open data is there for anyone to access. However, not all journalists are aware of the open data available to them or how to use it when writing about food security or the critical challenges facing agriculture. Good journalism is not based on opinions, it relies on evidence-based information.
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Kenya opens up agricultural data
The Kenya government initiated the Open Data Initiative in 2011 on the idea that Kenya's information is a national asset. Agriculture is one of the main pillars, because food security and economic development can only move forward if decisions on agriculture are evidence-based. To be successful, data needs to be available, accurate, and open for all.
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Counting coconuts with drones
On the Pacific islands of Samoa drone technology is used in a coconut tree survey to forecast more accurately yield and production of virgin coconut oil.
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