ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook

ARD and infoDev kindly announce the release of the:

ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks and Institutions Click Here to Access the PDF  (http://bit.ly/ICTinAg) The ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook is designed to support development practitioners exploring, designing, implementing, and investing in information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled agriculture interventions.  The book is a compilation of resources related to 14 agricultural subsectors.  Each module covers the challenges, lessons learned, and enabling factors associated with using ICT to improve smallholder livelihoods in these subsectors.  Over 200 examples and case studies from five regions are presented in the text. The e-Sourcebook and website was made possible through the Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy program and generous funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Also announcing the ICT in Agriculture Website: http://www.ictinagriculture.org  A central goal of the sourcebook is to expand knowledge on the nexus between ICT and agriculture, and to generate discussion on how to use ICT effectively to improve the sector and reduce poverty.  The Agriculture and Rural Development Department (ARD) and infoDev of the World Bank invites you to participate in this discussion.  See the website above to access to sourcebook and for additional information and resources on ICT in agriculture. We are also hosting a series of forums on ICT in agriculture with FAO's e-agriculture community. The first forum, on ICT and Strengthening Markets, will be held from December 5th-16th. Please visit the website to learn how to participate. If you would like to receive occasional newsletters on ICT in agriculture from the World Bank, please click here to send an email (ictinag@worldbank.org).

Work Programme for agriculture at the climate talks in Durban

A group of 15 leading agricultural organisations (including three United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), the World Farmers' Organisation, CTA, FANRPAN and the International Food Policy Research Institute) have jointly endorsed a letter to the COP17 climate negotiators with a specific call-to-action, namely to approve a Work Programme for agriculture at the climate talks in Durban [under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA)] .

Agriculture is the low-hanging fruit for a deal at the climate talks this year, and this letter represents a strong consensus from key actors in agriculture on how negotiators can make progress this year -- both to mitigate agriculture's current level of emissions but also to help farmers adapt to changing growing conditions. The letter calls on negotiators to "take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future challenges."

The letter comes ahead of Agriculture and Rural Development Day, which takes place in parallel to the COP17 climate talks this Saturday, 3 Dec in Durban.

You can also read a Wall Street Journal article about the letter just published today:

http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2011/11/28/agriculture-orgs-up-pressure-ahead-of-durban-climate-talks/

Meeting for Coordinators’ of projects funded by the Coordinated Call for Africa

November 28th, 2011. The European Commission, Directorate E – Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food, in partnership with CAAST-Net held a meeting of coordinators of projects funded via the Coordinated Call for Africa. The meeting explored possibilities for cooperation between the Africa Call Food Security projects in order to exploit the natural synergies of the projects. This meeting created a framework for future cooperation, identifying needs, opportunities, and priorities for areas of cooperation.

Objectives:

• The creation of a network of Food Security projects funded by the Africa Call and projects relevant to the Africa Call;
• Mutual sharing of project aims, activities, etc;
• The creation of an international contact point for each project to facilitate cooperation;
• A framework for future cooperation.

Africa Call Food Security Project Abstracts
EAU4Food
EAU4Food seeks to address the need for new approaches to increase food production in irrigated areas in Africa, while ensuring healthy and resilient environments. Potential pitfalls of introducing innovations in local farming systems, like limited adoption by farmers and trade-off effects to other (environmental) systems are overcome by, respectively, i) utilizing a true trans-disciplinary approach, which involves the active participation of all stakeholders in all relevant disciplines, and ii) by determining and respecting so called sustainable production thresholds. EAU4Food is executed in four irrigated areas in Africa, viz. Southern Africa (Mozambique and South-Africa), Tunisia, Mali and Ethiopia to fully benefit from the potential of cross distributing promising strategies and innovations.

Waterbiotech
Natural biological treatment systems include lagooning, land treatment, phytodepuration, or constructed wetlands systems. They can be applied as secondary or tertiary purification treatment, allowing the removal of pathogenic microorganisms and the degradation of the organic pollutants, so that waste water can be recycled for irrigation and domestic use and hence reduce the pressure on the hydric resources. Other biotechnological techniques to be taken into account within this proposal are bio-filtration, membrane bioreactors and algae and other aquatic crops application for wastewater purification.

SUNRAY
SUNRAY has seven work packages: WP1 optimises communication and coordination within the Consortium. WP2 maps current nutrition research activities in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines the operating environment. WP3 analyses the views of stakeholders. WP4 examines the impact of environmental changes on nutrition. WP5 builds consensus on research priorities through workshops in three African regions. WP6 develops a strategic framework for future research in the form of a roadmap. WP7 disseminates project outputs. The SUNRAY Consortium has four African and five European institutions and an Advisory Group of six external experts with complementary expertise. The total budget of 968,972 Euros is for a period of 18 months

INSARD
The main aim of this project is to facilitate the participation of a broader range of European and African civil society organizations in the formulation and implementation of ARD. It will do so by:
1. Designing a structure for coordination and communication between European and African CSO’s involved in influencing policies and practices around ARD.
2. Define policy influencing strategies, including thematic priorities, target groups/individuals and tools.
3. Lobby key African and European research organizations and donors.
4. Working towards defining research priorities which draw on interaction between researchers and CSOs.

PAEPARD
The Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (Phase II) is to build joint African-European multi-stakeholder partnerships in agricultural research for development. PAEPARD II nurtures partnerships to increase the quantity and quality of joint proposals (leading to more funded initiatives). PAEPARD II not only focuses on FP7, but includes other European Commission (EDF, EC Budget through the FSTP) and bilateral funding instruments supporting ARD that might be mobilized for emerging ARD partnerships.

Tutorial Hilangkan Navbar Pada Blog

Navbar berperanan untuk memudahkan blogger kembali kepada link² tertentu. Walau bagaimanapun, beberapa pengubahsuaian yang dilakukan yang menyebabkan kehadiran navbar ini sedikit menyemakkan.:). Jadi tutorial kali ini akan menunjukkan cara untuk hilangkan navbar pada blog anda.

Antara pengubahsuaian yang menyebabkan navbar ini tidak diperlukan adalah tutorial letakkan button follow dan dashboard dalam blog.

Tutorial untuk hilangkan navbar adalah seperti berikut.
Terdapat 2 cara, anda boleh pilih mana yang bersesuaian dengan blog anda.


CARA 1:

1. Dari dashboard > design > edit HTML

2. Dengan menggunakan fungsi Find ( ctrl + F), cari 'navbar'
(hasil cari biasanya samada navbar-iframe atau navbar sahaja)

3. Dari kod yang ada di bawah navbar,
Tukarkan 'display:block' kepada 'display:none'

contoh:



4. Save dan lihat hasilnya.


CARA 2:

Nota: Cara kedua digunakan jika anda tidak mempunyai 'navbar' dalam 'edit HTML' blog anda.

1. Dari dashboard > design > edit HTML

2. Dengan menggunakan fungsi find ( ctrl + F), cari kod body {


3. Copy dan paste code berikut SEBELUM code body {

#navbar-iframe {
display: none ;
}

contoh:



4. Save dan lihat hasilnya.:)

Second African Diaspora Marketplace

November 21, 2011 – The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) a leader in global payment services, the Western Union Foundation  and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the second African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM), an initiative which encourages sustainable economic growth and employment by supporting U.S.-based African diaspora entrepreneurs with ideas for start-up and established businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Through this collaboration, Western Union and USAID are helping to tap the economic potential of the 1.4 million Africans living in the U.S., bringing more direct investment to the continent. The African Diaspora Marketplace will strengthen and help satisfy demand for locally-produced products and services by leveraging diaspora capital and resources.”

The number of grants awarded will be determined based on grant pool and program need, and is likely to be in the range of 15 to 30 businesses.  The matching grant size is expected to be up to US $50,000, with an additional supplement of US $25,000-$50,000 in technical assistance. 

 African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM)  related to agriculture/agribusiness: See PAEPARD blog post 23/05/2011.

Tutorial Letak Button Follow dan Dashboard Dalam Blog

Dalam template asal blogger, sudah diletakkan untuk widget follower dan juga dashboard. Walau bagaimanapun, anda boleh melakukan sedikit pengubahsuaian. Tutorial kali ini akan tunjukkan cara untuk letak button follow dan dashboard dalam blog seperti gambar di bawah.

Anda juga boleh tengok demo button follow dan dashboard ini di test blog ini.

Tutorial adalah seperti berikut.

1. Dari dashboard > design > add a gadget > HTML/javascript

2. Copy dan paste kod di bawah ke dalam ruangan HTML/javascript yang dibuka.
[tidak faham.?]

<div style="position: fixed; top: 5px; right: 90px;"><a class="linkopacity" href="http://www.blogger.com/follow-blog.g?blogID=ID BLOG ANDA" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Follow !" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-feYAFwQF-GM/TtOSBVXcMmI/AAAAAAAAHvk/GH1PZPVvU7c/follow.png" border="0" /></a><div style="display:scroll; position:fixed; top:5px; right:2px;"><a class="linkopacity" href="http://blogger.com/home" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Dashboard !" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N61PPu_1haE/TtOSBZgZikI/AAAAAAAAHvc/vIEC_dYpIVo/dashboard.png" /></a></div>

Nota: Gantikan 'ID BLOG ANDA'

Bagaimana untuk cari ID Blog.?
> Anda klik pada 'new post' dari dashboard, dan akan ada paparan seperti gambar di bawah. Noombor yang admin highlight adalah contoh NO ID BLOG

3. Setelah anda selesai letakkan ID blog anda, save dan lihat hasilnya.:)

Update:
TAMBAHAN:
Bagi sesiapa yang mempunyai masalah kehadiran navbar dalam blog, anda boleh hilangkan navbar tersebut dengan mengikuti tutorial hilangkan navbar dalam blog.

Enhancing partnerships between African and US scientists for collaborative GEC research

2012 Research Partnership Enhancement Awards

Announcing five Awards of $5,000 each to develop and/or enhance partnerships between African and US scientists for collaborative GEC research.

START is offering five grant awards to enhance partnerships between African scientists and US scientists who are currently engaged in Global Environmental Change (GEC) research.

1.  Who is eligible?                                    

Applications will be accepted from individual scientists from Africa who are based at an institution in Africa.  The African scientist must have an established contact with a counterpart scientist based at an institution in the United States.  

2.  Why are the grants being offered?

START sponsors a number of programs to build capacity for GEC research and outreach by scientists in Africa.  (http://start.org/programs)   Over the years, START has received many requests to provide funds to allow face-to-face visits of scientists from the US and Africa.  The Research Partnership Enhancement Awards are being offered as a way to enhance collaborative US/Africa projects for research, training, joint scientific publications and the development of communication products.  The awards are part of START’s overall goals to:

·         increase the number of scientists in Africa who are working on global environmental change issues;

·         enhance communication at the interface of science, policy and practice;

·         encourage research that contributes to understanding global environmental change in the context of regional and national development priorities; and

·         strengthen scientific networks by fostering collaborative relationships across disciplines, institutions and countries.