AGCommons technical infrastructure – How to make spatial data useful to farmers?

A major component of the AGCommons program from the beginning has been to find a way to make spatial information more relevant and useful to small-holder farmers in the field. The idea that we can bring the same level of location intelligence used by large scale farming operations and agribusinesses in North America to small-holder [...]

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Mobile phones fight disease and poverty – An interview with Whitney Gantt

At the beginning of this year, three different banana diseases were attacking East Africa, devastating farms around the region and exacerbating the prevailing food crisis. To help prevent the spread of such diseases, it is vital that smallholder farmers have access to comprehensive information about crop conditions in the region. As it is, such information [...]

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The Community Knowledge Workers model – A success story

“Melinda and I believe that helping the poorest smallholder farmers grow more and get it to market is the world’s single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty.” – Bill Gates One of the five AGCommons’ Quick Win Projects, the Community Level Crop Disease Surveillance has achieved an important result: as a component of the [...]

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“Ask Me”… AGCommons Crop Disease project hits the news on the New York Times on line

“Mobile phone has revolutionized scientists’ ability to track crop disease and communicate the latest scientific advances to remote farmers” says the article on NYTimes.com on the Crop Disease project, one of the five “quickwin” AGCommons projects.

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Tools of the Trade

Agricultural extension refers to the mechanism by which advice is delivered to farmers as an input to their farming practice. Extension agencies should serve as a link between the global agriculture community and the local farming communities they serve. This service can be performed by a government agency, university, private company or non-governmental organization (this [...]

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Agriculture Extension 2.0

  “Effective extension depends on sound intelligence about disease distribution and the damage it causes. National governments need to understand the risks posed to new areas and the actions required to control disease through sound research planning and identification of best management strategies” – Fen Beed, Head Plant Pathologist for IITA East Africa.

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