How ICT is taking farming into the future

Ahmed Ibrahim Wakea Allah is a farmer in Sudan. By taking part in an e-agriculture project, he quadrupled his wheat yield in just one year and went from making a loss of 8000 Sudanese pounds in the 2013/14 season to a profit of 80 000 Sudanese pounds in 2014/15.

E-agriculture is an emerging field that sees agricultural services, technology dissemination, information and communication delivered or enhanced through the internet of things (IoT).

Combing farming and ICT yields positive results

Agriculture is strategically important in supporting the livelihoods of the majority of the rural population in Africa and closer to home in South Africa. The growth of e-agriculture has the potential to accelerate agriculture and rural development, promote food security and reduce rural poverty in developing markets.

While farmers and their machinery are still key for the agricultural industry, technology is starting to play a more significant role in uplifting communities. This goes beyond basic computer training to using ICT to improve sustainability, efficiency and profitability of small scale farming. ICT can facilitate relationship building with trusted suppliers of seeds and fertiliser; purchasing aggregation where multiple buyers can result in lower pricing; access to cultivation information and best practices; and an overall reduction in labour costs and wastage.

Ahmed experienced this first-hand when he took part inFieldLook Sudan.

The project uses satellite imagery to improve water management and crop husbandry. Satellite images are used to provide information on crop growth, humidity and the nutrient needs of plants. Based on this, along with the current state of the farm, expected weather and the date of last irrigation, specialists send SMS messages to farmers’ phones informing them of the best time to irrigate, when to apply fertiliser and other crop husbandry advice.

Ahmed and other farmers participating in the project now irrigate their crops more often, but use less water. They have all seen increases in their crop yields averaging 60%, and their confidence in using ICTs continues to grow.

Beyond this project, the 2015 eLearning Africa Report showsthat ICTs are having a significant impact on the productivity and efficiency of the continent’s agriculture. A survey reports that 71% of farmers have used ICTs to improve their farming practices, with 90% saying ICTs are helping to improve food security and sustainability, as well as boost yields and improve income.

The need for partnerships to make it rain

However, an important caveat is that 60% of the same farmers questioned feel they do not have sufficient access to ICTs. The main barriers preventing a greater uptake of e-agriculture include issues around connectivity, bandwidth and electricity supply, as well as the high cost of equipment and services and lack of government support. What is needed is the buy-in and partnering of the public and private sector to scale projects like FieldLook Sudan so that they impact the large proportion of farmers on the continent. In South Africa, the government needs to realise the importance of e-agriculture and the IoT in the agricultural sector and upskill emergent farmers.

Global brands get their hands dirty

Companies like Intel are already on board with various e-agriculture initiatives globally. In India, a joint collaboration between the Grameen Trust and Intel, called Grameen Intel Social Business, is addressing low agricultural output, which impacts poverty and food security. In this initiative, support for e-agricultural programs includes productivity software, technological advice and training, community empowerment, ecosystem structures and building, training of entrepreneurs and capacity building for sustainable agriculture and rural development.

e-Agriculture on home soil

Closer to home, Ronin PFS is providing guidance and precision farming equipment in South Africa – just beginning to fill a gap in the ICT sector.

The Bredasdorp Agri Mega Week also recently showcased just how ICT is being used in the agricultural space. Motorola promoted its IRRInet irrigation syste, which makes use of a typical Motorola communication network for solenoid control. Sustainable food security was also a prominent topic, with e-agriculture touted as a solution to this issue.

Israel and New Zealand’s involvement in modern farming techniques was apparent at the Agri Mega Week, but South Africa and particularly the Western Cape is beginning to understand the significance of IoT in agriculture. The hope is that there will be a lot more local innovation at the next Agri Mega Week.

Cultivating solutions at the heart of the ICT sector

However, e-agriculture does tend to be overlooked as a viable and profitable sector and the result has been the development of in-house solutions as opposed to solutions coming from the ICT distribution sector. Intel is a great examples of the success of providing solutions at the heart of the ICT sector. The sector is, after all, at the centre of solutions like developing better weather mapping thanks to faster computers and more accurate data input; implementing wireless to help curb cable theft; and making use of solar energy and battery storage to circumvent power shortages. These are all building blocks in constructing workable e-agriculture solutions.

In this vein, the Rectron distribution model lends itself to e-agriculture with its green energy solutions, wireless and fixed line communication networking, security surveillance, Intel Next Unit Computing (NUC), the cloud, industrial computing and embedded systems. In addition, premium 3D printing brand in the stable, MakerBot, has the potential to assist in the prototyping and manufacturing of unique and industry-specific parts and tools.

Rectron is certainly evolving, seeing the importance of IoT in paving the way for areas including green energy solutions, industrial computing and of course e-agriculture. Most importantly, new partnerships now include many more market verticals than before, all connected through the common gateway of IoT.

Reaping the rewards

As agriculture makes up a large proportion of Africa’s GDP, boosting agricultural growth and sustainability is a priority – and ICTs have the potential to support agricultural development in poor countries by functioning as innovative solutions to agricultural challenges. Agriculture might be a relatively new area for the ICT sector to think about, but it is an important one. In fact, IoT and e-agriculture is no longer a luxury, but rather tantamount to every farmer’s profitability and existence.

Taken from: BizNis Africa

ECFH’s Esther Browne-Weeks is new Chamber President

PRESS RELEASE – The St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture elected by acclamation Mrs. Esther Browne-Weeks as the new Chamber President to serve the institution.

The 131st Annual General Meeting was held on November 25th 2015 at the Bay Gardens Hotel, under the theme “Making it Easier To Do Business in St. Lucia” with Dr. Ernest Hilaire as the Guest Speaker. Mr. Hilaire spoke on the Citizenship by Investment Program.

Mrs. Browne-Weeks takes over from Mr. Gordon Charles of the JQ Charles Group of Companies who served the traditional two terms as President. Joining Mrs. Browne-Weeks on the oldest and most recognizable private sector organization on the island is a mixture of new and old Directors.

The complete Board of Directors are:

President: Esther Browne-Weeks – Eastern Caribbean Financial Holdings Ltd

1St Vice President: Lanfraze Cherubin – Windward and Leeward Brewery Ltd

2nd Vice President: Geraldine Pitt – Cable & Wireless

Immediate Past President: Gordon Charles – J.Q. Charles Group of Companies

Member: Martin Dorville – Consolidated Foods Ltd.

Member: Trevor Louisy – St. Lucia Electricity Services Ltd

Member: Karen Peter – Caribbean Metals Ltd

Member: Sue Monplaisir – 1 Audio Inc.

Member: Ross Gardner –  Carasco and Son Ltd

Member: Anya Whitfield – MediaZone Productions Inc.

Member: Thecla Fitz – Lewis Industries Limited

Outgoing President Mr. Gordon Charles in a very structured President’s Message urged the Business Community to invest increased resources in the Chamber of Commerce so that it can improve its service delivery, while pointing out that the approach of the Chamber, though less publicly confrontational was coordinated, organized and focused on producing good results for members and country.

Charles called on Government to provide opportunities for consultation with stakeholders on new policies and laws which will impact them prior to enactment of these new policies and laws. An area which caught many off guard was spoken to by way of a call for action on the performance and outcomes of the education sector.

Mr. Charles made reference to studies which point to poor outcomes for many Secondary school students which has become manifest in poor results and ultimately leading to a labor market skills mismatch in the economy.

Charles did take time to applaud the energy and direction being provided to the Ease of Doing Business Task Force by the Minister of Commerce Emma Hippolyte in the last year, and urged the Customs and Excise Department and the St. Lucia Air and Seaports Authority to continue their good reform work which was already having a positive impact on the Business Community though this was not being reflected in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report.

The Closed Business Session saw the election of the Board of Directors and the presentation of audited financial statements. The Executive Director’s Report was once again presented in the form of a magazine.

Taken from St. Lucia News Online

Grow more of our own food

A major effort by the Government, crop and livestock farmers, wholesalers, retailers and the private sector to replace a significant portion of the $4 billion spent annually on food imports is one means of generating internal economic activity and doing so in the short to medium term. 

Taken from Guardian Trinidad and Tobago

Reality Check

SMALL businesses make up 90 percent of all companies in operation. But while diversification of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector is now deemed critical given the need to wean the economy off oil and gas, and while countless seminars and events have taken place on this matter, not enough has been done to jumpstart levels of innovation and to deepen the use of technology which can bolster productivity.

That was the view of officials from the State and other stakeholders charged with enhancing local business at a forum held last Wednesday on the need to empower SMEs through information communications technology (ICT).

“We are not actually using money wisely in terms of diversification,” said Dr Rikhi Permanand, executive director of the Economic Development Board of the Ministry of Planning and Development.

“We need to get our act together. We’ve got to (get off the ground), as they say, and start doing things. We have the capacity, the raw materials to be able to make that happen.” At the event held at the Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, Permanand also stressed that diversification not only involves new business creation and bolstering growth and export potential in the non-energy sector, but also the expansion and deepening of the productive base of existing SMEs and the transformation of these enterprises into promising, large enterprises.

Vashtie Dookiesingh, an investment fund specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), lamented that while local consumers participate in sales on the internet such as those for “Black Friday” in the United States, local companies have not established presences online in order to draw customers.

“We are very high-ranked in terms of ICT infrastructure, having more cell phones that people,” Dookiesingh said. “But we see very low levels of ICT in terms of impacting or shaping new models for business, new services, new products and an abysmal level of business-to-business and business-toconsumer transactions by local firms. We don’t have the systems in place to allow us to easily transact....There are some gaps in terms of these firms having the knowledge and having access to the expertise to really allow them to take that next step.” Though ICT is a mechanism which can improve the way organisations, whether public or private, function, she said a recent survey by the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri) found low levels of ICT use.

“Although they saw more ICT infrastructure and more ICT utilisation, we did not see the level of online transactions that we would expect to see and some of this is due to delays in maybe getting the legislation around e-commerce and these kinds of things,” Dookiesingh said. “This pathway to development is not as easy as it looks.” Liaquat Ali Shah, CEO of Cariri – where he has worked for over 30 years – said the time had come for a reality check.

“Too often there is a lot of mention of key words: clusters, ICT, incubators, innovation, SMEs and their role in the diversification of the economy,” Shah said. “But the question begs of itself: how effective have these efforts been to date? Let’s do a reality check. How in depth have been these efforts beyond seminars and workshops? Lest I be misunderstood, allow me to be quite explicit when I emphasise that I am not advocating that these exercises in information dissemination are unimportant.

The dilemma is that at the end of these seminars, which are at times very expensive relative to the SMEs, where do we all go from here?” He said a Cariri study noted the critical importance of ICT in powering diversification.

“Diversification, competitiveness, innovation and SME clustering – all now assume critical proportions for the country’s economic survival going forward,” Shah said. Yet, “ICTs are under-leveraged.” “Business success and indeed survival hinges on information, knowledge, and their intelligent application,” the Cariri CEO said. “The ability of SMEs to survive in an increasingly competitive global arena is therefore largely predicated upon their capacity to leverage information as a resource input no different from other factors of production. Using words as a fad, we don’t have time for that.” Hayden Charles, project technical coordinator at Cariri, said over three years, 350 SMEs were “sensitised” on ICT matters, 80 completed ICT diagnostics, and 50 implemented solutions. Cariri and the IDB have partnered to fund business ventures in the food and beverage, plastics, printing and packaging industries.

The project has been extended to include enterprises in the health as well as manufacturing sectors. 

Taken from Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday

Written by:

ANDRE BAG00 Thursday, November 26 2015

Project Signing: Government of India and World Bank Sign US$ 75 Million Agreement to Improve Incomes and Nutrition Status in Backward Areas of Andhra Pradesh

The FINANCIAL -- The Government of India, the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the World Bank on November 17 signed a US$ 75 million credit for the Andhra Pradesh Rural Inclusive Growth Project to enhance agricultural incomes of small and marginal farmers and ensure increased access to services related to health, nutrition, sanitation and social entitlements.  

The project will focus on increasing economic opportunities for small and marginal farmers, especially from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) households in the 150 most backward mandals (cluster of villages across gram panchayats) of the state. It will invest in developing a network of social enterprises for food, nutrition, sanitation and other social enterprises which operate at community and district level. It will also support the Government of Andhra Pradesh in its efforts at creating an enabling policy framework, and enhancing market access for farmers with real time analytics across sectors. Several Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with leading private sector organizations are being planned to enable farmers to better access markets. Investments will also be made in improving access to services in the areas of health, nutrition, and water and sanitation and increasing coverage and effectiveness of India’s social safety net programs, according to the World Bank.

“The project seeks to incorporate insights from national and international poverty reduction programs that have emphasized the value of linking such initiatives with small and marginal producers, using innovative approaches to human development, and improving coverage and delivery of social entitlement programs for the poor,” said Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. 

The credit agreement for the project was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; Sunitha Kolaventy, Finance Secretary, on behalf of the Government of Andhra Pradesh; and Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director in India, on behalf of the World Bank.  Solomon Arokiaraj, the Chief Executive Officer of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, the implementing agency was also present.

To read more...

Taken from FINCHANNEL.com

ICRISAT, IIT Bombay launches free online agriculture course

HYDERABAD: The National Virtual Academy for Indian Agriculture will launch an online course on diseases of horticultural crops and their management in collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. 

The two month free online course, which begins on November 30 and concludes on January 29, 2016, is an initiative by a team of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in agriculture and educators from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and its partners together with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. 

"Complementing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of a Digital India where - Quality Education reaches the most inaccessible corners driven by Digital Learning, we are excited to see the launch of MOOCs (Part-II) in India, which offers high quality learning opportunities for students across the country," said Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT. 

To read more, ICRISAT, IIT Bombay launches free online agriculture course 

Taken from the Times of India

Final call for applications to Durban Agrihack Talent Challenge

Global organisation the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has issued a final call for applications for the Durban Agrihack Talent Challenge, with teams standing the chance to win up to EUR14,000 (US$15,287) in prize money.

The AgriHack Talent initiative, now in its third edition, encompasses a series of activities at the heart of which a national or regional hackathon competition is organised.

For this edition of the event, the focus will be youth ICT innovations and entrepreneurship in agriculture,  with the aim of supporting youth livelihoods and innovations in the agro-food sector.

Students and young professionals residing in South Africa are invited to create multidisciplinary teams, comprising of ICT and agriculture specialists, to compete in one of three categories: climate change; startup; or agricultural magazine. 

Teams competing in categories one and three will make use of climate change and agricultural open data during the hackathon, while experts will be on hand to all competitors throughout the event to advise on business management, ICT service development and agricultural challenges.

The winning team in each category stands the chance to win up to EUR14,000 (US$15,287) in prize money, as well as mentorship and incubation after the hackathon. Successfully completed products will also be promoted through various channels following the event.

The hackathon will be held in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 2, 2015.  Applications are open until November 8, and can be submitted here.

Taken from Disrupt Africa