Applying science to eradicate poverty
Wayne Coles
Today, 17 October 2019, is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. We're taking a look at how science-based knowledge in three areas of international development – crop health, digital development and invasive species – has helped to lift people living in poor rural communities out of poverty and made a positive difference to…
Can a 'diet' of digital data really help feed the world?
Last week (29 January 2019) CABI was awarded a $1.49 million grant from the Gates Foundation to work with them to help increase food security in India and Ethiopia through better access to data on soil health, agronomy and fertilizers. In this blog Communications Manager Wayne Coles looks at whether or not the use of…
'Switching' onto ICT approaches to gender in extension services
Duncan Sones, of the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC) delivery team, looks back on six years of concept and project development that could unlock changes in farmer's ability to effectively access improved technologies… I don't know about you but when I hear about something for the first time, I rarely take in all the nuanced…
Author of the Month: Big Data's Big Potential in Developing Economies, Nir Kshetri
Big data's role in addressing the root causes of poverty There clearly are some signs of big data-led political, economic and social transformations taking place in developing countries. Early evidence has shown the huge potential benefits that can be realized by implementing big data in diverse fields that are critical to the future of these…
School expedition gathers data on biodiversity in Mexico
Stephanie Cole
Scuba quadrats. Image credit: David H. Williams, Rye St Antony Our guest blogger this month is David Williams, who is the Head of Science at Rye St Antony School, Oxford. He recently led a group of schoolgirls on an Operation Wallacea expedition to Mexico, where they took part in a conservation project which involved conducting mammal surveys…
Taking stock of challenges for global open data in agriculture and nutrition
As the open data revolution in agriculture and nutrition gathers pace, discussions are emerging about some of the ethical issues involved in equitable sharing and use of data¹, particularly as increasing amounts of data are now generated by or for farmers, although the discussion and implications extend much more widely across the agriculture and nutrition…
Sharing open data in agriculture and nutrition to help make decisions
GODAN, in collaboration with the Open Data Institute, yesterday launched a discussion paper: How can we improve agriculture, food and nutrition with open data? at the 3rd International Open Data Conference in Ottawa (IODC). The paper highlights how open data is already making a difference in the agriculture and nutrition sectors. CABI is a partner…
More from AHILA14: Information literacy, ICT and the problems in rural areas
Wendie Norris
Papers at the 4 day AHILA Congress, 2014, covered the theme "ICTs and access to information and knowledge". Information seeking behaviours, access to and resources for health information were extensively reported and covered disparate groups ranging from academic researchers and students to mothers and students, teenage pregnant girls and older people (60 onwards). The problems of providing health information in rural areas, where some religious and cultural values can be a barrier to western medicine were the subject of a several studies and lengthy discussion. Highlights were presentations from community health workers and the organisation which trained them CUAMM.