Agrictulture Management in Small Scale Farming – Catching Up With ICT technology 

Human innovation never halts and it’s not only a matter curiosity but in most cases a matter of survival. Indeed, both curiosity and survival are very much related on long-term perspective. Curiosity can generate solutions for survival and our survival instinct fuels our creativity and curiosity. 

I enjoyed very much being a student and I still love to learn as it is the only tool to refresh and jog myself forward in a turbulent and an ever changing world. For successful navigation in life you need a compass to direct yourself but there are no such ready-make compasses that are tuned for everyone. So, I created one for myself, “a survival compass driven by curiosity”. Survival makes my everyday living while curiosity gives the momentum to cope with changes and unexpected obstacles in everyday living. 

During my studies at school and even in many parts of my university education there were no luxury things like electricity, machines and modern ICT-solutions. Everything were done manually, e.g. to go long distances, solve mathematics using paper-based tables, write personal notes after teachers, and not to mention never ending stories of searching and waiting for literature for days, weeks or even months through local and national libraries and book-stores as well as personal contats. Every technical and scientific transitions in the society were met with great curiosity and my compass has to recalibrated to continue safe and secure navigatation, just because of my very instinct for survival.

In late forties and the fifties came the amazing semi-conductor technology (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor) and the invention of transistors which gradually changed our life in terms of bringing about intelligent tools, calculators and semi-intelligent machinery, ….. and so on. Advances never stop once humans open small doors that keep creating big inventions and changes. The whole semi-conductor technology moved forwards more and more towards automation and control. The new era of ICT-revolution has started its definite journey that no one expected that it will bring about enomous changes that we are experiencing today in modern houses and in all service-sectors. Here is an example regarding ICT applications for agriculture risk management for micro-scale farming:

http://www.ictinagriculture.org/sourcebook/module-11-ict-applications-agricultural-risk-management

UN has projected that world population could reach 9.6 billion by 2050 and debate has emerged about how best to support farmers between advocates of large-scale agricultural projects and those who prefer more targeted, small-scale efforts. Global food production must double by 2050 to feed the world. Smallholder farmers provide up to 80% of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa’s food, where the vast majority of the world’s poor people live. Long-term food security has to be based on food sovereignty in national, regional and international policies that influence food systems where small-scale farmers are important in this context. In order to thrive, farmers in the developing world need access to seed, fertiliser, microcredit and microinsurance, as well as rights to land and union representation: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/19/feed-the-world-small-farmers-big-agriculture-mdgs

 

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