Development of farmer-friendly plant health digital content for smallholder farmers in Kenya
Digital technology has the potential to improve farmer livelihoods through access and utilization of agricultural digital platforms and digital online content across the agricultural value chain. However, despite the rapid global interest and growth of digital services, smallholder farmers face challenges that hinder them from realising the benefits of new and existing digital services, particularly in the areas of crop pests and disease management. Some of the challenges which farmers face include a lack of knowledge, poor mobile internet connectivity, limited finances and skills gaps, especially among women. In this project, CABI developed farmer-friendly, digital plant health content for six main crops with the aim of improving access and encouraging the use of digital resources to enable sustainable agriculture production and food security.
Investigating technological risks in development and food security
Food insecurity, caused by increases in the global population and the loss of arable land due to climate change and conflicts, pose a major risk to human lives and well-being, especially in the Global South. While technologies have been introduced to tackle food insecurity, it is understood that unintended risks, such as loss of biodiversity and environmental pollution, have surfaced for local communities as a result. To maintain and improve food security, it is necessary to ensure that agricultural production is effective, efficient and sustainable. This project seeks to investigate how technologies that have been introduced as solutions to food insecurity have contributed to the creation of new technological risks, and how these technologies should be governed.