The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands,\u00a0 Fisheries and Cooperative, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has\u00a0 launched two projects to promote digital agriculture and resilient agri-food systems in Grenada.<\/p>\n
The Global Network of Digital Agriculture Innovation Hubs (DAIH) and the Regional E agriculture for the Caribbean, a post COVID\u201319 mechanism to promote resilient agri-food (REA)\u00a0 were both launched during an Inception and Workplan Validation Workshop for the projects,\u00a0 from March 22 -24, 2023.<\/p>\n
The projects aim to support current initiatives implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and\u00a0 Lands, Fisheries and Cooperatives with FAO\u2019s technical support, and to strengthen the enabling\u00a0 environment for the adoption of digital agriculture strategies at the national level.<\/p>\n
They will also seek to establish a national digital agriculture innovation hub and programme to\u00a0 accelerate the development and uptake of digital innovations that support farmers and other\u00a0 value chain actors, especially youth and women, to become more competitive. Both projects\u00a0 will use innovation as a tool to drive public-private partnerships.<\/p>\n
The DAIH initiative will support the Ministry in establishing a digital transformation strategy,\u00a0 starting with an intervention to respond to gaps in digital agriculture. The Innovation hub will\u00a0 create a space where different agricultural connections can be made between stakeholders in\u00a0 agriculture, such as linking farmers with extension officers. This may include a marketing app or\u00a0 a farmer\u2019s registration portal which would strengthen the services offered by the Ministry of\u00a0 Agriculture and Lands, Fisheries and Cooperatives.<\/p>\n
The focus of the REA in Grenada will be the establishment of a drone mapping and Geographic\u00a0 Information System (GIS) team in the Ministry of Agriculture. This will allow the Ministry to\u00a0 utilise better agriculture data collection and planning techniques and acquire updated spatial\u00a0 information for the farming population.<\/p>\n
The updated information will allow the Ministry of Agriculture to efficiently respond to affected\u00a0 farming communities when managing systemic multi-hazards risks such as flooding.<\/p>\n
Aaron Francois, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture in speaking about the digital\u00a0 tools, stated that, \u201cthere are serious challenges that are facing the agricultural sector and we\u00a0 know some of them very well. They include low product quality, high input prices, lack of\u00a0 information on best practices, lack of market information for informed decision making, and a\u00a0 high incidence of praedial larceny. We have included a component to address praedial larceny\u00a0 using digital technology\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nikola Trendov, FAO Digital Agriculture, and Innovation Specialist explained that digitalization\u00a0 in agrifood systems brings several opportunities and , \u201cthe new generations are already digital\u00a0 natives and equipping them with these tools can improve food security and help persons to be\u00a0 more resilient to the impacts of climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kenton Fletcher, Focal Point for the Project and Computer Systems Administrator\u00a0 in the Ministry of Agriculture stated that, \u201cWe need to bring in Information and communication\u00a0 technologies to improve production, to improve marketing and also have innovative ideas on\u00a0 how we can help farmers do better record keeping, and better management of their farms\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vermaran Extavour, FAO Project Coordinator said that the initiatives would provide Grenada\u00a0 with a strategy for transforming the sector digitally while piloting the use of emerging solutions\u00a0 in the agriculture sector for farmers \u201cto access weather data that is relevant for planting and\u00a0 making more informed decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n
The E-agriculture for the Caribbean, a post COVID\u201319 mechanism to promote Resilient Agri Food (REA) is a regional project benefitting six countries: the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica,\u00a0 Grenada, Guyana and St, Kitts, and Nevis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands,\u00a0 Fisheries and Cooperative, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has\u00a0 launched two projects to promote digital agriculture and resilient agri-food systems in Grenada. The Global Network […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-argriculture","8":"category-government-news"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?fit=1068%2C801&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?fit=1068%2C801&ssl=1",1068,801,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg",1068,801,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg",1068,801,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1",300,225,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1",1024,768,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?fit=1068%2C801&ssl=1",1068,801,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?fit=1068%2C801&ssl=1",1068,801,true],"mh-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?resize=1030%2C438&ssl=1",1030,438,true],"mh-magazine-content":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?resize=678%2C381&ssl=1",678,381,true],"mh-magazine-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?resize=678%2C509&ssl=1",678,509,true],"mh-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?resize=326%2C245&ssl=1",326,245,true],"mh-magazine-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Ministry-of-Agriculture-and-Lands-Fisheries-and-Cooperatives-with-FAOs-technical-support-1068x801-1.jpg?resize=80%2C60&ssl=1",80,60,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Agriculture<\/a> Government News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands,\u00a0 Fisheries and Cooperative, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has\u00a0 launched two projects to promote digital agriculture and resilient agri-food systems in Grenada. The Global Network [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11397,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11395\/revisions\/11397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}