Webinar series: Farmers’ access to data
This webinar series by GFAR, co-convened with GODAN and CTA, on farmers’ access to data is a follow-up of the face-to-face course. The first webinar ‘Data-driven agriculture overview‘ provides a foundation for understanding the use of data for farming and across the agricultural value chain. It gives an overview of digital agriculture, the trends impacting it, and its advantages and challenges for smallholder farmers. The use of farm management information systems for decision support has shown great promise for improving farm yields and profitability. However, growers are often unsure of the value of the data that they are providing and/or receiving. The second webinar ‘Key data for farmers‘ explains the different key data streams, flow and sources that are vital to agricultural value chains. It identifies specific data needed by farmers, as well as potential sources. For data driven agriculture to happen the data streams in the food chain from pre-planting to consumption have to be distinguished. However, farmers may not be in a position to realize those streams and possibly what data and information is required to answer the food chain questions. These questions can be answered if the factual data or information is used or made available to the farmers. The third webinar ‘Crossing the Donga: Accelerating market adoptation and use of data by smallholders‘ examines some of the key challenges that are blocking adoption of digital architecture by smallholder farmers. This webinar will provide smallholder farmers, and those who support them, specific methods for ensuring farmer-centric solutions.