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Smart Tech: The New Tool for African Farmers
Farmers, crop buyers and other sector professionals have started to harness smart gadgets and crunch numbers to improve productivity, reduce costs and smooth out wrinkles in the markets, they say.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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WorldCover Raises $6m Round for Emerging Markets’ Climate Insurance
WorldCover’s platform uses satellite imagery, on-ground sensors, mobile phones and data analytics to create insurance options for farmers whose crop yields are affected adversely by weather events — primarily lack of rain.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Melinda Gates: How I Learned to See Agriculture (And Everything Else) as a Gender Issue
I'm embarrassed to say it now, but at the time, I wasn't thinking much about gender inequalities in connection to our anti-poverty work. I definitely wasn't thinking about them in relation to agriculture. I bet if you'd asked me to close my eyes and picture one of the farmers we were trying to reach, I would've pictured a man.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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How This Hyderabad Social Entrepreneur Is Using Big Data to Change Farmers’ Lives
At a time of widespread agricultural distress caused by successive droughts, unremunerative farming and debt-trapped rural economies, a young man with his mobile app is showing how change can be brought in the life of farmers at the grassroot level.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Top Funders and NGOs Think Empowering Women Farmers Can Reduce Hunger. Are They Right?
This problem isn’t new; famines and food insecurity are one of the oldest development challenges in human history. What is new is a recent shift by donors—both public and private—to focus on female empowerment in agriculture as a key solution to humanity’s food and nutrition deficit.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- agriculture, food systems, gender gap, NGOs, nutrition, Women
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PepsiCo Accused of Harassment After Suing Indian Potato Farmers
The company is seeking about $150,000 (£116,000) in damages from each of the farmers, arguing they broke the law by sourcing and dealing the potatoes without participating in its programme.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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The Other ‘Shark Tank’: A High-Stakes Effort to Find Solutions to the Global Water Crisis
You've probably seen the TV show "Shark Tank," in which small-scale entrepreneurs compete for funding from a panel of wealthy investors. The Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge for Development took a similar approach – but the stakes were far higher: The goal was to generate solutions to water shortages that already affect over 2 billion people, before population growth escalates these shortages into a perpetual global crisis. Ku McMahan, team lead for the Challenge, discusses its unique approach and surprising impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship, Environment, WASH
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Technology Eases Farming ‘Drudgery’ and Risk as Climate Threats Grow
As climate change makes farming far tougher and more young people reject it as a career, technological innovations to make the work more secure and appealing can help, agricultural specialists told the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford this week.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
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