FAO focuses on technology importance for IDPH - NaijaAgroNet

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The 2024 International Day of Plant Health is attracting shining light on the importance of leveraging innovation to protect plants by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO also said that focusing on technology importance at this time has become indispensable essential for sustaining life on earth.

SDGs implementation: Ban Ki-moon stresses importance of finance

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The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon has stressed the importance of financing and other support mechanisms in implementing the global goals for sustainable development and climate action, reports NaijaAgroNet.

He also urged further efforts by G20 countries to fulfilling their commitments to SDGs and climate action.

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal, integrated and transformative plan of action for peace and prosperity for all on a healthy planet,” Mr. Ban told a session on inclusive and interconnected development during the G20 Summit happening in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Referencing the 2030 Agenda on 17 global goals adopted by the UN General Assembly last September, he said that achieving them requires balanced, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. 

"The Addis Ababa Action Agenda, adopted in Ethiopia last year, provides a global framework for financing the 2030 Agenda implementation. It aligns all financing flows and policies with sustainable economic, social and environmental development," he said.

Mr. Ban also pointed out that the G20 Action Plan to support implementation of the 2030 Agenda is testament to your commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” the UN chief said, acknowledging China’s leadership for mainstreaming sustainable development in the work of G20.

Mr. Ban also applauded the leaders of France, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the Republic of Korea for initiating inter-ministerial coordination mechanisms on implementation of the global goals, calling upon all G20 leaders to follow “these good examples.”

“Implementing the 2030 Agenda will strengthen our collective ability to address short-term risks and build long-term resilience. This is why it is essential that sustainable development is fully integrated into a global macroeconomic policy framework,” Mr. Ban said.

The G20 initiative on supporting industrialization in Africa and least developed countries will strengthen their inclusive growth and development potential, he said.

The UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) report provides a comprehensive framework in this regard. Increased investments in infrastructure and industry, access to finance, sharing and transfer of technologies, trade facilitation, capacity building and improving enabling environments can support the transformation needed, he added.

The G20’s financial support to the Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted last December in France, is crucial, the Secretary-General emphasized. “Now it is time to ensure we live up to our commitments on climate finance, including the commitment to provide $100 billion for the Green Climate Fund,” he said, describing this as “an important step” to support developing countries’ efforts to implement the climate accord.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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LDRI director, Nyumba underscores importance of file extensions in open data

NaijaAgroNet:

The importance of file extensions in open data has been underscored by the Nairobi-based Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), reports NaijaAgroNet.

This importance was brought to the fore by the co-founding director at LDRI, Mr. Stephen Nyumba in his recent presentation in Nairobi-Kenya, during a workshop for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network held at the Hilton Hotel, recently.

According to TechTerms Computer Dictionary, a file extension or ‘simply extension’ is the ending of a file that helps identify the type of file in operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. In Microsoft Windows, the file extension is a period that is often followed by three characters, but may also be one, two, or four characters long. For example, the filename "myfile.txt" has an extension of ".txt", which is a file extension associated with text files.

Nyumba in his paper entitled “Open Data for Agriculture: An Overview, the Concept and Application” stressed the imperative of file extensions in exploration of the open data contents.

The LDRI director also highlighted some kinds of file formats open data content come with, such as the Comma Separated Values (CSV), the XLS file which is a spreadsheet extension file created by Microsoft Excel, and assumed the most widely-used spreadsheet programme and comes in either XLS or XLSX.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered that XLSX file formats, are the extensions of Microsoft Excel versions created in 2007 and later.

Nyumba, equally said that open data comes as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file, while DOC  an abbreviation of 'document') is a filename extension for Word Processing documents, most commonly Microsoft Word Binary File Format and have since been extended to even Word Perfect file format. Even as the DOCX file extension is a Microsoft Word Open XML Format Document file.

In addition, he highlighted that the Extensible Markup Language (XML) file formats do exist, while the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight data-interchange format.

Nyumba emphasized that datasets and Application Programming Interface (API) also come in XML which stands for Extensible Markup Language, pointing out that some of the extension file formats could sound like jargons, but it is crucial to know a little of some of these formats, mostly for media practitioners who stand in-between the data content and the populace who ought to understand the gist in the story, no matter how complicated the data may be or look.

He further said that LDRI focuses on supporting African Union (AU) member states in their efforts to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality through data, even as with good datasets, good stories 
could emerge.

Remmy Nweke/ED. Ops
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Pix: Steve Nyumba

G20 Ministers of agriculture affirm importance of ICT

NaijaAgroNet:

The G20 Ministers of Agriculture have affirmed the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the end of their meeting, reports NaijaAgroNet.

A communique from the meeting made available to NaijaAgroNet, the ministers affirmed the importance of ICT in agriculture, calling it “essential to human, social and economic development,” and stressing “the potential to reach farmers --including smallholders and family farmers-- with timely and accessible content on markets, sustainable and efficient farming practices and new technologies

The partnership structured at the G20 meeting, NaijaAgroNet gathered is part of a larger digital strategy Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is developing  to integrate a wide range of technologies, ranging from satellite data to mobile phones and social platforms, with the agency’s work to support the most vulnerable with access to information and bottom-up learning.

“We have to bear in mind that small farmers in developing countries are often constrained in their access to inputs, technology, and markets. In order to ensure that farmers fully leverage the ICT opportunities, it is essential to provide digital tailored access, foster capacity development and facilitate the exchange of experiences,” he said.

The FAO Director-General, José Graziano da, highlighted joint work between FAO and G20 countries on such projects as the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) and the G20 Technical Platform for the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste.

He also underlined the ongoing international efforts to address Antimicrobial Resistance in partnership with the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health and called on G20 countries to support FAO in this endeavour. 

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