Open data for agricultural innovation at GFIA Africa

Open data for agricultural innovation at GFIA Africa

GODAN is excited to participate and present at the 3rd PAFO Continental Briefing and the Open Technology Forum at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture – GFIA Africa.

3rd PAFO Continental Briefing presentation

The Briefing is organised by the Pan African Farmer’s Organisation (PAFO), the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), and the African Union Commission (AUC). This year’s theme is ‘Advancing African agriculture through agribusiness development.’

The Briefing objectives are to: (i) highlight the key opportunities in agribusiness development favourable to the farmer’s organisations; (ii) promote sustainable and inclusive PPPs in support of agribusiness development; and (iii) identify new opportunities in data and ICTs in support of agribusiness and agricultural development in the continent.

GODAN will present in the ‘Data-driven farming, Big data and Precision Agriculture’ session on 29 November at 14:00-16:00. This session will look at new opportunities offered by Big data and ICTs successful applications to farmers in various areas supporting agribusiness. The session will also map specific gaps and needs which need to be addressed benefiting farmers organisations.

  • Open data for agriculture – Andre Laperrierre, Executive Director, Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN)
  • Precision agriculture: a reality for Smallholder farmers? – Chris Addison, Senior Coordinator, Knowledge Management, CTA
  • Agriconnexions: A new ICT approach to supporting Farmers Organisation services – Getaw Tadesse, Researcher, IFPRI
  • Data for farmers: overview of current data and further needs – Summer Allen, Research Coordinator, Markets, Trends and Institutions, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

GFIA Africa panel session

The interactive panel session, organised by GODAN with GFAR and CTA, explores open data for agricultural innovation. Data on all aspects of agriculture increases every year. Yet often this data sits in government files and company offices, locked-up away from innovators.

Open data brings a different approach: accessible and reusable data – a shared and renewable innovation resource. This sessions explores the potential and challenges, of open data, building on the discussion from the agriculture track at the 2015 Africa Open Data Conference.

This session will be moderated by Valeria Pesce (GFAR/GODAN Secretariat), Andre Laperriere (GODAN Secretariat) and Ana Brandusescu (GODAN Secretariat).

Panel speakers:

  • Gracian Chimwaza – Executive Director, Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa, ITOCA
  • Summer Allen – Research Coordinator, International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI
  • Fatma Ben Rejeb – CEO, Pan-African Farmers’ Organization, PAFO
  • Ednah Karamagi – Executive Director, Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative, BROSDI
  • Winnie Kamau – Data Journalist, Association of Freelance Journalists

Questions will be asked to the panelists and then we will welcome a general discussion from the floor. Andre Laperriere will give the concluding remarks and announce the GODAN Summit September 2016.

GFIA Africa closing ceremony

Andre Laperriere will give a keynote presentation on the importance of open data for agricultural innovations and the highlights from the GODAN panel session from earlier in the afternoon.

CTA AgriHack winners will be announced at the closing ceremony of the GFIA Africa event on 2 December, after a pitching session which is part of the assessment of the prototypes developed.

Join the conversation online on Twitter: #GFIAAfrica