Writer: Wannipa Soda, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems
“Setting in place a national e-agriculture strategy is an essential first step for any country planning on using ICTs for agriculture”
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (TIU), together with support from partners including the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA), have developed the E-agriculture Strategy Guide (online copy available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5564e.pdf. The guide provides a framework for countries to develop their national e-agriculture strategy, or master plan.
To support the use of proven e-agriculture solutions and services, FAO-ITU conducted a three-day E-Agriculture Solution Forum from 29-30 August 2016. This collaboration platform was to facilitate knowledge sharing where countries and solutions developers could share their experiences and challenges. The forum also served as a platform to showcase solutions to accelerate innovation and demonstrate the positive impact of ICT in Agriculture.
An expert on soil and nutrient management form ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems also attended the event.
A number of cases and stories from government and private agencies were brought up to the floor during this three-day forum. Most of them were small scale cases which were not implemented in a wider scale.
Though guidance on E-agriculture strategy is ready on board but to mainstream this into national strategy and policy will require huge efforts and supports from various partners/stakeholders to create enabling condition in using ICTs for agriculture at country level.
For more details, please visit www.fao.org