technological innovations

This article states that globalization of food value chains has increased the demand for greater transparency over where food is produced, how, by whom and with what effect on society and the environment. A range of new digital technologies are available to facilitate transparency, with the promise of leading the global food system to an era of ‘hyper-transparency’. Its impact on smallholder farmer inclusion, however, remains questionable »

This article explores the feasibility of an automated advisory service that collects household data from farmers, for example through the keypads of conventional mobile phones, and uses this data to prioritize agricultural advisory messages accordingly. »

This briefing provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges in adopting the blockchain technology in agriculture and the agrifood industry across several sectors and looks at best practices and successful applications of the blockchain technology. There is still a long way to go in terms of building the human and infrastructural capacities to harness the full potential of blockchain technology in the food system, but the industry has already begun to embrace the possibilities and invest in developing agricultural solutions using the technology.  »

This publication aims to demystify the technology, provide some thoughts on the opportunities and challenges in implementing blockchain-based systems as well as document some case studies on the use of blockchain for agriculture. In the agriculture domain, self-executing smart contracts together with automated payments would be the game changer. An applications of the blockchain technology that is already in practice for agriculture is FARMS: financial and agricultural risk management for smallholders, that offers an easy entry to formal financial risk management while increasing farmers financial literacy. »

This paper examines the state, drivers and, consequently, the impacts of agricutural mechanization in eleven countries in Africa. Significant drivers of agricultural mechanization include the size of the household and gender of the household head. Agricultural mechanization, significantly increases the amount of cropland cultivated (extensification) and is also accompanied by input intensification especially in countries where land expansion is limited. The findings point to the importance of developing favorable arrangements that would avail mechanization to small and medium scale farmers. »

This blog describes a study that demonstrated how rice and wheat can be grown using 40 percent less water through an innovative combination of existing irrigation and cropping techniques. Rice and wheat grown using a sub-surface drip fertigation system, combined with conservation agriculture approaches used at least 40 percent less water than flood irrigation for the same amount of yields, and is still cost-effective for farmers. »