Benjamin Addom
Team Leader, ICT for Agriculture, CTA
Team Leader, ICT for Agriculture
Biography
Dr Benjamin Addom is an agricultural information specialist with a particular focus on using new ICTs for supporting EAS. He has over 20 years of experience with smallholder farming, including working on EAS provision; agricultural research and development approaches; resource mobilisation; and designing and grant making to support agriculture. He holds a doctorate in information science and technology from Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, USA; and a master’s in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University, USA. At CTA, he is currently managing the ‘Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service’ project among other responsibilities.
Articles
Innovative digitalisation project transitions into promising business
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.
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Why Europe should partner the world’s smallholders to adopt big tech
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.
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ACP agribusiness digitalisation – Big data analytics a pathway towards sustainability
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 the critical shift to self-sustaining business models.
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Attracting private sector investment to digitalise African farming
by Benjamin Addom and Anders Enghild
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.
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Publications
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The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report, 2018-2019
"Digitalisation is crumbling all sorts of borders and African agriculture will be deeply impacted. Technologies can help stimulate innovation for sustainable agri-food systems and produce better and safer food while preserving natural resources and biodiversity. But we need to be conscious and support solutions that are sustainable and that are tailored to countries’ needs, and embedded into conducive and broader innovation systems." Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit at the European Commission, DG for International Cooperation and Development
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ICT4ag - More than mobile
Mobile agriculture has contributed successfully to the current developments in ICT4Ag sector. This issue’s guest editors predict further impact in the sector if cross-channel partnerships in ICT4Ag projects are achieved.
events
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Dec 7
2019 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting
The 2019 Grand Challenges Annual Meeting is co-hosted by the African Union, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, Grand Challenges Canada, the United States Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The meeting includes scientific tracks, with sessions running in parallel, and a series of complementary plenary sessions and side meetings.
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Dec 7
Regional planners’ forum on agriculture
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat hosts the 12th Regional Agricultural Planners' Forum in Belize, an integral part of regional agriculture planning and development. The main objective of the Forum is to provide a neutral forum for stakeholders to advance discussion and build cooperation on matters of importance to regional agriculture enhancement. The 2019 Forum is under the theme '… -
Dec 7
African Green Revolution Forum 2019 - Master class – Proving the business case of smallholder D4Ag solutions
The overall objective of this masterclass is to demonstrate how big data analytics can drive the interest of the private sector into investing in smallholder digital agriculture.
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Dec 7
African Green Revolution Forum 2019
Africa is on the move, with signs of progress and growing prosperity for millions of its people. The continent has witnessed sustained economic growth and a modernisation of its economy for more than two decades powered by an increasingly inclusive agricultural transformation and by rapid growth in digital innovations.
