Water is a vital and scarce resource in agriculture and its optimal management is emerging as a key challenge. This paper presents an automated irrigation system to reduce water utilization in agriculture by combining the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and optimization tools. The automated irrigation system deploys low cost sensors to sense variables of interest such as soil moisture, pH, soil type, and weather conditions. The data is stored in Thingspeak cloud service for monitoring and data-storage.
Sur la base de 16 études de cas, nous cherchons à comprendre comment l'usage des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC) transforme les dispositifs de conseil agricole au Burkina Faso. Si les outils employés et les thématiques du conseil sont diversifiés, les services demeurent récents et inaboutis. Les prestataires de conseil cherchent en effet à améliorer les outils et services, dont la durabilité n'est pas encore garantie. Ceci s'explique notamment par la complexité du travail inter-organisationnel pour développer ces services.
This paper examines reconfigurations of household economies and agrobiodiversity through the experiences and responses of rural households to local manifestations of globalisation and environmental change in the Central Valley of Tarija, Bolivia, from the 1950s to the present. Research participant narratives from seven study communities document a widely experienced regional shift from rain-fed agriculture and pastured livestock production for household consumption to market-oriented production of regionally-specialised commodities.
Food quality and safety are receiving increasing attention in the food sector nationally and internationally. Emerging private sector regulations are increasingly perceived as market entrance barriers within this development. In this paper, we analyze quality assurance programs (QAPs) in the horticultural sector in Vietnam and their effect on access to international markets. A representative sample of registered fruit and vegetable processing firms provide the basis for our analyses. Results of different logistic regression models show that QAPs are market specific.
There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality.
The citrus industry is very important for Pakistan as it is the 4th most important export commodity. There are two product flows in the citrus value chain, one is more traditional with abundant intermediaries, in which contractors, commission agents and wholesalers are the main stakeholders, and the other is export-oriented with processors and exporters (P&Es) as the main stakeholders. It has been noticed that growers are not using ICT extensively at the production stage.
The study explored the contribution of information and communication technology (ICT)-based information sources to market participation among smallholder livestock farmers. Use of ICTs is considered paramount for providing smallholder farmers with required market information, and also to reduce market asymmetries. A double hurdle regression was utilized to analyze data collected from 150 smallholder livestock farmers in the study area.
Value chain partnerships face difficulties achieving inclusive relations, often leading to unsustainable collaboration. Improving information flow between actors has been argued to contribute positively to a sense of inclusion in such partnership arrangements. Smallholders however usually lack the capability to use advanced communication technologies such as smartphones which offer a means for elaborate forms of information exchange.
The use of digital technologies has been recognized as one of the great challenges for businesses of the 21st century. This digitalization is characterized by the intensive use of information technologies in the different stages of the value chain of a sector. In this context, smart agriculture is transforming the agricultural sector in terms of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
The application of ubiquitous computing has increased in recent years, especially due to the development of technologies such as mobile computing, more accurate sensors, and specific protocols for the Internet of Things (IoT). One of the trends in this area of research is the use of context awareness. In agriculture, the context involves the environment, for example, the conditions found inside a greenhouse.