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A Digital Tool To Help African Farmers in the Battle Against Locusts Unveiled
A free tool that will help farmers and pastoralists across Africa to predict and control locust behaviour has been launched. Kuzi—the Swahili name for the wattled starling, a bird renowned for eating locusts—is an Artificial Intelligence-powered tool that generates a real-time heatmap of locusts across Africa, shows all potential migration routes, and gives a real-time locust breeding index.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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SupPlant Granted $2 Million to Develop Technology to Aid Small Farmers In Africa
By changing the basic concept of irrigation methods and sensing the plant’s stress, this unique technology will assist small farmers to manage their water budgets efficiently, save water, reduce costs, improve productivity and yield.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: Data-Driven Social Safety Net Response to the COVID-19 Crisis in Ghana
The government’s social protection authorities augmented and adjusted existing data systems to help inform the design, implementation, and monitoring of the country’s social safety net response to the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- data, governance
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How Mexico’s Central Bank Plans to Move Payments to Digital
In Mexico, the pandemic is moving the needle toward digital payments — specifically mobile payments — to become more widely embraced by businesses and consumers alike.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Machine Learning Helps Battle Life-Threatening Diseases. Could It End World Hunger, Too?
A group of MIT researchers reported that machine learning may be useful in diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease and asymptomatic COVID-19 infections, from the sounds that subjects make by speaking or coughing, respectively. Machine learning is also being used to make plant-based “milk” and other foods.
- Categories
- Technology
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Umba, a Digital Bank for Emerging Markets, Raises $2 Million Seed Funding to Expand Across Africa
Umba, a digital bank for emerging markets and aiming first at Africa, has secured a $2 million seed funding round from new investors including Lachy Groom, ex-Head of Issuing at Stripe; Ludlow Ventures; Frontline Ventures and Act Venture Capital.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Coders Behind Bars: The Prisoners Training for Future Tech Jobs
Unemployment among former inmates in the US is five times higher than for the general population, according to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company is involved in Justice Through Code, a project to bring coding qualifications to the convicted from Columbia University’s Center for Justice and The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- employment
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Taking Cold Chains Off-Grid: How Solar Powered Cold Rooms Could Dramatically Reduce Food Waste in Sub-Saharan Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 50% of produce perishes before reaching end customers, largely due to a lack of viable cold chain solutions. Maria Knodt at Energy 4 Impact and Ruth Kimani at CLASP explore how solar-powered cold rooms can address this issue, and highlight some significant technical and business model challenges that could undermine their impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Investing, Technology, Transportation
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