Abstract

ICT4Agriculture in developing countries: Innovation and the last mile

This event is part of the Humanitarian Centre’s Global Food Futures Year and our “ICT4 . . .” series, which explores the role that ICT plays in global poverty initiatives, generously sponsored by ARM .

Please join us for a discussion to explore how agricultural innovations for improved food security and nutrition travel “the last mile” to smallholder farmers.

We are pleased to welcome our panellists for the evening:

• Cliff Schmidt, founder of Literacy Bridge and Talking Book
• Laura Crow, Sustainability Analyst for Vodafone, and an author of Connected Agriculture
• Harsha Liyange, founder of Sarvodaya-Fusion, the ICT4D program of Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka
• Benny Dembitzer, founder of Grassroots Africa and nobel prize winner

This will be a participatory conversation: we welcome practitioners, researchers, activists, entrepreneurs and others working in the areas to come question our panel and share their thoughts on such topics as:

• Is the information & communication technology (ICT) infrastructure (mobile and internet) developed enough to benefit the poorest famers in the most remote areas? Can we reach women, the majority of smallholders, through ICT ?
• Can ICTs help support person-to-person knowledge sharing and community extension services?
• Are there lessons to be learned from “innovation sharing” models in other sectors, like health and education?
• Are there examples of platforms for dialogue between the UK/Europe and developing countries that have been successful in creating real changes in food security and improved nutrition? What can we learn from successes and failures in this area?
• And more!

As always, we’ll have drinks and time for networking after the discussion.

For more information, and to register, please visit https://gffict4agriculture.eventbrite.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you there!