Digital AgroMet advisory platform for resilient agriculture in Ethiopia

Poster prepared for a share fair, Addis Ababa, May 201

Computational Contributions to the Automation of Agriculture

The purpose of this paper is to explore ways that computational advancements have enabled the complete automation of agriculture from start to finish. With a major need for agricultural advancements because of food and water shortages, some farmers have begun creating their own solutions to these problems. Primarily explored in this paper, however, are current research topics in the automation of agriculture. Digital agriculture is surveyed, focusing on ways that data collection can be beneficial. Additionally, self-driving technology is explored with emphasis on farming applications. Machine vision technology is also detailed, with specific application to weed management and harvesting of crops. Finally, the effects of automating agriculture are briefly considered, including labor, the environment, and direct effects on farmers

Navigating the Path to Equitable and Sustainable Digital Agriculture among Small Farmers in Malaysia: A Comprehensive Review

The agriculture sector has transformed with the advent of digital agriculture, smart farming and Agriculture 4.0, yet the social science aspects remain underexplored. This article aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive review of 17 studies that focus on the social, economic, and institutional dimensions of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming and Agriculture 4.0. The objectives are to explore the dynamics between digital agriculture and farm diversity and to identify emerging concerns related to economics, business, institutions, and ethics. Methodologically, the review synthesizes existing literature on socio-cyber-physical-ecological systems, digital agriculture policy processes, the transition from analog to digital agriculture and the global landscape of digital agriculture development. It adopts a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to provide a holistic understanding of the topic. The outcomes reveal significant implications for policymakers, farmers, and stakeholders in the agriculture sector. Key findings highlight the necessity of addressing social and economic impacts, such as data privacy, security, and accessibility, and the effects of automation on rural employment and community structures. The review emphasizes the importance of developing institutional and governance frameworks to support digital agriculture practices and tailoring policies to promote sustainable and equitable use of digital technologies. It explores how infrastructure, connectivity and local capacities influence the adoption of digital agriculture technologies. The review advocates for further research on the intersection of digital agriculture with broader societal trends, such as climate change, urbanization, and food system transformations, to develop strategies for sustainable and resilient food systems

Constraints and Countermeasures of Digital Economy Empowering High-quality Development in Chinese Agriculture

With the wide application of networking, informatization, and digitization technologies in agriculture, as well as the improvement of farmers’ modern information skills, the digital economy has become an important engine driving high-quality development and digital transformation in agriculture. Digital agriculture is an essential component of the national strategy for “Digital China” and an effective measure to achieve the deep integration of informatization and agricultural modernization. Driven by digital technologies, digital agriculture in rural areas shows tremendous development potential, huge market demand, and broad application prospects. The era of digital-driven agriculture and rural areas “leapfrogging” is approaching. However, the digital economy empowering high-quality development in agriculture also faces various constraints, such as lagging infrastructure construction, slow development of digital agriculture, insufficient endogenous driving forces, and difficulties in practical applications. To address these issues, the government should increase investment, clarify directions, promote industry academia research collaboration, and strengthen core technologies. These measures will enable the digital economy to better empower the high-quality development of Chinese agriculture

Systematic Literature Review: An overview of Digital Agriculture for Food Sustainability

Digital agriculture has been noted to have far reaching prospects in the transformation of agribusiness. Digital technologies are been applied to improve food production, processing, security and packaging. As most of the least developed and developing economies are strategizing to reduce poverty and hunger, digital agriculture presents opportunities to reverse the trends. Thus, this paper presents a systematic literature review with aim to collect all related research and identify gaps in digital agriculture, as well as to understand the benefits of digital technology in agriculture in other to chart new proposition for future studies. A systematic literature review was carried, and we have extracted 67 journals published within the last two decades (2002 -2022). Findings suggests that digital agriculture is important drivers of food sustainability, with improve production yield and increase household income. Also, 42% of the studies on digital agriculture are dominated by precision agriculture model. This SLR recognizes knowledge gaps in relation to the context, theory and content for future research

The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report 2018-2019

An inclusive, digitally-enabled agricultural transformation could help achieve meaningful livelihood improvements for Africa’s smallholder farmers and pastoralists. It could drive greater engagement in agriculture from women and youth and create employment opportunities along the value chain. At CTA we staked a claim on this power of digitalisation to more systematically transform agriculture early on. Digitalisation, focusing on not individual ICTs but the application of these technologies to entire value chains, is a theme that cuts across all of our work. In youth entrepreneurship, we are fostering a new breed of young ICT ‘agripreneurs’. In climate-smart agriculture multiple projects provide information that can help towards building resilience for smallholder farmers. And in women empowerment we are supporting digital platforms to drive greater inclusion for women entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains

Digital libraries for the developing world

Digital libraries (DLs) are the killer app for information technology in developing countries. Priorities here include health, agriculture, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, and safe drinking water. Computers are not a priority, but simple, reliable access to targeted information meeting these basic needs certainly is. DLs can assist human development by providing a non-commercial mechanism for distributing humanitarian information on topics such as health, agriculture, nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, and water supply. Many other areas, ranging from disaster relief to medical education, from the preservation and propagation of indigenous culture to educational material that addresses specific community problems, also benefit from new methods of information distribution

Factors Influencing Extension Workers’ Behavioural Intentions Towards Digital Farm Technologies in Malawi

Information and Communication and digital farm technologies are vital in improving agriculture produc-tion. Despite introducing digital farm technologies in Malawi, the country continues to have low agriculture production. The country has a low uptake of technology, which is a major driving factor of agriculture productivity. Therefore, this research aims to examine factors that influence the behavioural intention of extension workers towards using digital farm technologies to improve agriculture production. The research covers 14 districts of Malawi, where the digital farm technology, National Agriculture Management Infor-mation System (NAMIS), is currently operational. Centring on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the quantitative study approach showed that perceived behaviour control and subjective norms influence be-haviour intention. At the same time, attitude is not a significant determinant of behaviour intention of using digital farm technologies

Thailand’s Digital Economy Transformation: Rectifying the Middle-Income Trap by Leveraging Digital Capabilities in the Agriculture Industry

The Thai government has been attempting to move the country out of the middle-income trap through digital economy strategies. Among these strategies, digital innovation is the most central. Leveraging digital capabilities in the agriculture industry, a sector that a large number of low-income farmers work in, conveys digital innovations to farmers. Digital innovation is expected to increase farmer incomes and ultimately help the country step out of the middle-income trap. This dissertation aimed to 1) identify the major challenges of digital economy transformation, 2) develop a model that explains digital agriculture innovations, 3) apply the model to real use cases of digital transformation, and 4) identify a set of lessons learned from the entire research model that can guide policymakers to leverage digital capabilities to advance the agriculture industry. The dissertation identified how digital capabilities might improve farmer welfare by using multiple case studies. Three cases were studied individually and then synthesized into a data model. The participants covered five groups of stakeholders: developers, government officers, mid-tier employees, user farmers, and non-user farmers. The findings provide a data model explaining the practices of digital agriculture innovations. Moreover, the results guide policymakers to invest in and implement digital strategies to advance the agriculture industry and help lift the middle-class economy. Digital policies, strategies, and investment programs can be implemented in the agriculture sector and applied to other industries such as automobile, healthcare, and tourism