MoBay Mayor Eyes Abattoir Money

MAYOR OF Montego Bay and Chairman of the St James Parish Council, Councillor Glendon Harris, has said he is hoping that the parish will benefit from the $30.6 million allocated in the 2014-2015 Budget to improve some of the abattoirs across the country.

"We have not been so advised," Harris told The Gleaner last week. "We would hope that if this is being done through local government, we would be considered.

"It is a critical component in our parish's infrastructure and as development increases, there will be a greater demand for such a facility," the mayor added.

In his Budget presentation on Holy Thursday, Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips announced the $30.6 million allocation for the abattoir project, which will be done under the Diversification of the Caribbean Livestock through the Production of Small Ruminants project.

Ruminants are mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialised stomach prior to digestion.

The municipal abattoir in St James was closed in 2002 by the St James Health Department due to a number of deficiencies that were negatively affecting its services. The closure was originally slated for three months.

To read more, MoBay Mayor Eyes Abattoir Money

Adapted from The Gleaner

Farmers appeal for review of Agriculture and Fisheries Incentives Bill

Nearly 200 farmers have decided to join forces in an effort to convince the government to repeal the Agriculture and Fisheries Incentives Bill, which was passed in the House last week Tuesday.

This was one of the conclusions of a meeting held with the farmers by the United Workers Party on Wednesday in Ti Rocher, Micoud. The Party, after opposing the Agriculture and Fisheries Incentives Bill stated that it was imperative to meet with the farmers to explain their findings.

Parliamentary Representative for Micoud South Arsene James expressed disappointment with the government and reiterated the need for the Agriculture and Incentives Bill to be repealed. According to him, farmers from all over the island are prepared to take all the necessary actions required to send a strong message to the government.

To read more, Farmers appeal for review of Agriculture and Fisheries Incentives Bill

Adapted from St. Lucia News Online

ICTs: A springboard for women in agriculture

Thursday 24th April 2014, marks the International Girls in ICT Day organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 

Reinforcing the role of young women in ICTs and agriculture

Finance, market information, training, climate change mitigation.... The uses of ICTs in agriculture are numerous. Over three weeks, young and the less young, men and women, are invited to participate in an online debate on the theme ‘Enhancing young women’s engagement in ICT and agriculture’.

During the three week period, participants from around the ACP will exchange their experiences, ideas, challenges and hopes on a daily basis. Each week, the debate will focus on a new theme: understanding the use of ICTs in agriculture by girls and young women; the use of ICTs for entrepreneurship by young women in agriculture; and supporting women developing ICT applications for agriculture.

Bloggers, web developers, entrepreneurs, government officials, and others with various role and responsibilities will be involved. They are not all techies but each one is very aware of the role ICTs can play to help them secure their well deserved role and place.

To read more, ICTs: A springboard for women in agriculture

Adapted from CTA.INT

Agric engineer uses ICT to provide support services to farmers

A young chief executive of Agropreneur Nigeria runs his family piggery farm and combines it with his knowledge of agriculture and ICT to provide business support services to farmers.

Olawale Ojo has a degree in agricultural engineering from the Federal University of Technology Akure and a diploma in Integrated Farming Systems from the Songhai Centre for Production, Training, and Research, Port Novo, Benin Republic.

His inspiration came after his course at the Songhai Centre, which served as an eye opener to him as he worked with other youths planning to launch agribusinesses.

He started Agropreneur Nigeria April 2012. The business provides business support services to farmers, especially young agriculturists. The firm also does advocacy and capacity building for young people. “We believe the future of the agricultural sector is in the hands of the youths when they take it as a business. So, we work on changing the mindset of young people and in turn provide information and business support to help them grow,” says Ojo.

To achieve this, Agropreneur Nigeria profiles successful young farmers called agropreneurs on the internet and share their stories so that others can learn. “That also serves as an incentive to these hardworking young people. We have also worked on agricultural research and share the information via social media to enable a proper understanding of what is happening in the sector,” Ojo says.

He explains that this business is targeted at the youths and it focuses on making agriculture attractive while at the same time introducing modern technology like ICT for agriculture and social media as a tool for knowledge and information sharing in agribusiness.

Agropreneur plans to have a considerable expanse of land separate from the family farm he runs, where youths can be trained in farming and can establish their own businesses. “We also want to engage rural areas by creating access to market for them and providing qualitative extension service for them, especially with the internet. I must say that a lot of youths are beginning to see that the agriculture sector is a gold mine,” according to Ojo.

To see more, Agric engineer uses ICT to provide support services to farmers

Adapted from Business Day

Kenya: Eneza Education Wins This Year's ICT Innovation Awards

Eneza Education has been declared this year's winners of the 2014 ICT Innovation awards at the Connected Kenya summit.

This year's award categories included agriculture, business process resourcing education and training, healthcare delivery, gender youth and vulnerable groups.

Eneza's mission is to make 50 million kids across rural Africa smarter. In Kiswahili, "eneza" means "to reach" or "to spread." Eneza Education platform gives students access to the information that will improve their intelligence, their general knowledge and their lives as content is aligned to the local context and use the mobile devices to deliver information .

Eneza Education also gives schools and parents access to meaningful data and tips for helping their students.

To read more, Kenya: Eneza Education Wins This Year's ICT Innovation Awards

Adapted from All Africa

Nigeria: Innovation for National Vision 20 - 2020: Unlocking Nigeria's Potentials in Education, Agriculture

BY the time the just concluded Nigerian Innovation forum 2014 was drawing to a close, there were positive signals from discussants that ICT led innovations have the potentials of driving Nigeria's competitiveness in education and agriculture for global competitiveness.

The Nigeria Innovation Forum 2014 was focused on creating a cross-industry business alliance to support and harness innovation in Africa to increase the continent's competitiveness, as well as the national competitiveness of Nigeria specifically.

The forum was organised by Microsoft, Nokia, Dalber and hosted by the Cross River State Government.

Accordingly, the forum which attracted capacity audience from both public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy including NGOs provided an overview of the link between ICT, innovation and competitiveness; gave clear view of the current situation in the focus sectors of education and agriculture; outlined the potential of ICT to drive innovation in key sectors to increase Nigeria's competitiveness, among others.

Key themes for the Nigeria Innovation forum 2014 reflected two of the key areas the forum's partners believe ICT can play a critical role in driving innovation and competitiveness, including Agriculture Entrepreneurship and 'Education for Employment' with Power as a key enabler for both focus areas and sectors.

To read more: Nigeria: Innovation for National Vision 20 - 2020: Unlocking Nigeria's Potentials in Education, Agriculture

Adapted from All Africa

Innovative Farming

ICT in Agriculture

Probably there is no country where agriculture has been commercialized without using modern information and communication technologies (ICT). ICT is the fundamental aspect of development for increasing agricultural production and productivity without degrading natural resources. Lack of timely flow of information has been identified as one of the main factors for low adoption of new technologies by farmers and entrepreneurs in Nepal.

Agricultural scientists of the South Asian countries including Nepal have developed several useful technologies in agriculture but in most of the cases, they are confined within the fences of the research centers. There are limited communication facilities to communicate such research findings to the farmers. But fruits of agricultural research cannot be harvested unless there is an information technology in place to communicate to the scientists, policy makers, and most of all, the farmers. 

Nearly 80 percent Nepali people reside in rural areas whose chief source of livelihood is agriculture. But access to communication networks is much more limited there. Rural areas have scattered settlements, villages and towns, which can be hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest major urban center. 

According to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority MIS May 2012 report, the total voice telephony subscribers including PSTN and mobile are 16,350,946 which give the penetration rate of 61.42 percent. The mobile service alone accounts for 64.63 percent of the total penetration rate. These days we find extensive use of mobile service among commercial farmers and traders for communicating price information.

Internet penetration is estimated to be about 10 percent in Nepal. Information sharing through internet service among scientists and extension workers is only possible in central, regional and district levels.

To read more, Innovative Farming 

Adapted from Republica

Ministry of Agriculture achieves coconut replanting target

The Department of Agriculture under the “Coconut Replanting Programme” has achieved its target of 5000 seed nuts, and is now ready for redistribution to the farming community.

Under the “Coconut Replanting Programme”, the Department of Agriculture through CARDI purchased some 5000 sprouted coconuts and seed nuts at $2.00 per nut for resale to farmers at a subsidized price of just $ 1.00

The target of 5000 seed nuts have been reached and therefore no more coconut planting material will be purchased under this programme.

To read more, Ministry of Agriculture achieves coconut replanting target

Adapted from Saint Lucia News Online