"Hunger gehört zu den elementarsten menschlichen Erfahrungen. Etwa jeder zehnte Mensch auf der Welt hungert. Jeden Tag sterben etwa 24.000 Menschen an den Folgen von Hunger, etwa alle 13 Sekunden ein Kind unter 5 Jahren. Hunger ist aber keineswegs ein unabwendbares Schicksal. Das Welternährungspro
...
gramm der Vereinten Nationen bezeichnet Hunger als »das größte lösbare Problem der Welt«. Politisch wie medial wird das Thema aber radikal vernachlässigt. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurden 39 Medien ausgewertet, darunter über 8.000 Ausgaben von Nachrichtensendungen, circa 500 Episoden von politischen Talkshows und mehr als 1.000 Ausgaben von Printmedien mit etwa 37.000 Druckseiten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
more
"Numerous barriers hinder mobile information services in delivering information effectively to smallholder farmers. Many of these barriers can be explained by farmers’ habits in using their phones. Therefore, carefully considering how exactly farmers use their phones in specific local context is c
...
rucial to mitigate behavior-related barriers. We describe 18 potential behavioral barriers that should be checked before implementing mobile information services for smallholder agriculture." (Key message, page 1)
more
"This study uses a randomised experiment targeting wheat producers in Ethiopia to examine the impact of providing market price information through Facebook on farmers’ sales behaviour. To identify the effect of informant homogeneity, we distinguished the informants’ nationality as either Ethiopi
...
an or foreign. Our findings reveal that when wheat selling prices were provided immediately after the harvest – when prices are typically at their lowest – only the information provided by Ethiopian informants led to a reduction in sales decisions and sales volume during that period. This information did not affect selling prices during the lowprice period. However, analysis of data collected six months post-harvest shows that the selling price of wheat increased by approximately 14% due to information from Ethiopian informants. This suggests that farmers used the price information to delay sales until prices were higher, rather than negotiating with traders during the low-price period. Additionally, our heterogeneity analysis reveals that older, poorer, more socially isolated, and female farmers benefited more from domestic informant information, likely due to their previously limited access to information. These findings demonstrate the potential of social media for efficiently disseminating price information and highlight the importance of informant homogeneity in the effectiveness of such interventions." (Abstract)
more
"The global food system is characterized by market concentration and oligopoly. In our article, we focus on the most powerful input supply and machinery companies and analyze how these firms create value, both economic and otherwise, from big data. In digital capitalism, data is valorized across sec
...
tors; personal data is aggregated into large-scale datasets, a practice that feeds economic concentration and monopolization. Big data also has become central to the business model for agricultural companies; it is a claim made by the companies themselves. Yet, little is known about their specific strategies to do so. We aim to fill this gap, asking how is agricultural data transformed into value by the most powerful agribusinesses and ag-tech firms? Through the lens of assetization, we examine corporate strategies for transforming agricultural data into value. We draw on literature from food studies, specifically political economic analyses of the historical practices of agricultural corporations, as well as literature from critical data studies that investigates data as an asset. For our analysis, we rely on a variety of gray literature and public-facing documents: financial documents, sustainability and shareholder reports, terms of use, license agreements, and news articles. Our results contribute to the critical data studies literature on agricultural big data by identifying three main strategies of assetization: securing relationships and dependence, price-setting and data sharing, and product development and targeted marketing. The strategies have socio-ecological implications; our results indicate the reproduction of asymmetrical power relations in the agri-food system favoring corporations and the continuation of long-standing dynamics of inequalities." (Abstract)
more
"ICT4D research is predominantly governed by discourses of instrumental usage of ICTs and measurable ends dictated by official policies. Particularly in agricultural production, farmers are cast as tool-users expected to use ICTs to achieve pre-determined goals. The article argues that such approach
...
es undermine the multiple situated ways in which farmers transform through ICTs, and new thinking strategies are needed to legitimize undervalued meanings of ICT-driven change. Drawing from economic geography the article introduces the diverse economies framework as a tool that helps validate indigenous knowledge by unpacking the centrality of informal livelihood practices. This is explored empirically through a seven-year-long qualitative study with a farmers’ cooperative in South India. The findings reveal forms of ICT-enabled change and empowerment that do not fit with official discourses of development but are critical for farmers’ sustainability. The article concludes that legitimizing indigenous knowledge requires a concerted academic effort to make diversity visible." (Abstract)
more
"This paper introduces the concept of ‘oligopolistic platformisation’ to capture the specific dynamics of collaboration and competition between multinational upstream agribusinesses and Big Tech companies in the agricultural (ag) sector. We examine this phenomenon through the lens of Van Dijck e
...
t al.’s platform mechanisms: datafication, selection and commodification. Multinational agribusinesses operate sectoral ag platforms that analyse spatial, weather and agronomic data to optimise farming operations, whilst Big Tech companies provide the digital infrastructure, including cloud computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence. We explore how these pre-existing oligopolistic market structures influence the process and outcomes of platformisation in the ag sector. Using expert interviews, field observations, economic relationship mapping and an extensive literature review, we investigate relationships amongst multinational agribusinesses and between agribusinesses and Big Tech companies. Our findings reveal that Big Tech and multinational agribusinesses are collaboratively establishing digital platforms as the core organisational form of digital agriculture, aiming to consolidate most services. This collaboration blurs the lines between traditionally distinct industries, fostering overlapping ecosystems and mutually beneficial economic relationships in an already highly concentrated market. This dynamic has the potential to reinforce the market position of established companies, increase farmers’ dependency on agribusinesses and contribute to fragmented and siloed data systems." (Abstract)
more
"This study examined the effects of radio-based extension services on farmers’ adoption of organo-mineral fertilizer, biofertilizer, and manure in Lesotho using a sample of 1659 farmers extracted from the 2019/2020 agricultural production survey database Bureau of Statistics (BOS). Data were analy
...
zed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 29 to analyze and compare the data collected. Descriptive statistics were computed to examine the proportion and disaggregation based on the use of radio as the main source of extension information through crosstabulation and a Probit regression analysis. The results show information types covered include agronomy, pest/disease, credit, new practice, varieties, weather, land tenure, soil conservation, and crop protection, with majority indicating radio as the source; while technologies promoted by radio are soil conservation, terraces, cover cropping, crop rotation, organomineral fertilizer, organic fertilizer, biofertilizers, manure, and improved seeds. Radio continues to play a major role in the dissemination of agricultural information and influence adoption behavior despite the multimedia approach to agricultural communication." (Abstract)
more
"Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are among the profound tools to help the poor and marginalized rural smallholder farmers make a difference in their lives. This paper seeks to understand how the recent development of ICTs helps increase agricultural productivity and improve smallho
...
lder farmers’ livelihoods in Tanzania. We employed a fuzzy sets Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) technique to select the most relevant 24 literature from 2163 literature and analyze the drivers (conditions) that influence ICTuse among the smallholder farmers, which in turn leads to increased agricultural productivity and improved farmers’ livelihoods (outcomes). In addition, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with some local smallholder farmers in Tanzania’s same regions, as shown in the reviewed literature, to understand how ICTs worked in the field. Findings revealed that ICTs had been increasingly used for and directly linked with agricultural transformation, increased agricultural productivity and improved rural livelihoods in Tanzania in the past two decades. Smallholder farmers rely on ICT tools, particularly mobile phones and radios, to access agricultural-related information, which helps them increase agricultural productivity. The limited number of public extension service agents forces most smallholder farmers to opt for ICTs as an alternative source of agricultural information. In this case, the agricultural extension department from the ministry of agriculture should work closely with telecom, broadcasting companies and other stakeholders to strengthen and initiate more appropriate ICT infrastructure and services targeting the smallholder farmers." (Abstract)
more
"[...] Tonny Njuguna ist Schauspieler und einer der beiden Moderatoren von Shamba Shape Up, einer Reality-TV-Show aus Kenia. "Shamba" bedeutet Farm in der Landessprache Kisuaheli, "shape up" ist Englisch und heißt so viel wie aufmotzen oder pimpen. Allein in Kenia schauen Woche für Woche bis zu ne
...
un Millionen Menschen zu – und das bei 55 Millionen Einwohnern. Das Format ist so erfolgreich, dass Shamba Shape Up mittlerweile fast in jedem großen kenianischen Fernsehsender Nachahmer hat und das Original in andere ostafrikanische Länder exportiert wird.
Shamba Shape Up gibt es seit 2010, und während das Team die dreizehnte Staffel dreht, läuft im Fernsehen die zwölfte. Die Idee hat Ähnlichkeiten mit MTVs Pimp My Ride, wo der Rapper Xzibit Anfang der 2000er Schrottautos tunen ließ. Bei Shamba Shape Up geht es dagegen um andere Dinge: um das richtige Futter für die Kühe, wie man seine Farm an die Klimakrise anpasst und wann es sinnvoll ist, sich gegen Ernteausfälle zu versichern. Um finanzielle Bildung für Bauern, darum, was es heißt, sich gut zu ernähren, und was man tun kann, wenn der eigene Hof von eingewanderten Pflanzen überwuchert wird. Das Wichtigste dabei ist, dass nicht nur den Bauern geholfen wird, sondern die Zuschauer etwas lernen. Zum Beispiel, wie man Passionsfrüchte richtig pflanzt. So wie Vivien Machanury jedenfalls nicht. Ihre ersten Pflanzen waren zu widerspenstigen Büschen herangewachsen, deren mickrige Früchte sie aus dem Gestrüpp herausschütteln musste. Drei Tage lang wird das Filmteam auf ihrem Hof drehen, am Ende soll sie wissen, was sie besser machen kann: "Ich kenne das aus meinem vorigen Job: sich auf ein Projekt konzentrieren, dann das nächste angehen."
Vivian Machanury ist 50 Jahre alt. Vor drei Jahren hat sie ihren Beruf bei einem Telefonnetz-Betreiber aufgegeben. An der Wand ihres Hauses hängen noch Auszeichnungen als Mitarbeiterin des Monats und Zertifikate von Weiterbildungen. In ihrem Job hatte sie zuletzt ein Team von 50 Mitarbeitenden unter sich. Dann wurde sie Bäuerin. "Weißt du", sagt sie zu Tonny Njuguna, "ich habe mir das nur zugetraut, weil ich immer eure Sendung geguckt habe." Der ist sichtlich gerührt. "Das müssen wir gleich noch mal vor der Kamera machen", sagt er. [...]"
more
"This study has identified myriad potential benefits of AI and automation solutions in agri-food systems, with the largest being significant enhancements in agricultural productivity and outputs. Data collected from sensors, satellites, or drones can help SSPs prepare and use their available land op
...
timally. Data-generated insights can identify which farm areas are most suited to which crops, and automated input provision like automated irrigation systems can optimize resource use. AI and automation solutions can also improve extension advisory services, resulting in better, more contextualized and real-time advice for farmers, improving yields. Other solutions can predict, identify and mitigate against pests and diseases to reduce spoilage. Enhancing the improved productivity of SSPs is critical for global food security, and the economic and social empowerment of SSPs and the communities in which they live." (Executive summary, page 8)
more
"Global land and resource grabbing has become an increasingly prominent topic in academic circles, among development practitioners, human rights advocates, and in policy arenas. The Routledge Handbook of Global Land and Resource Grabbing sustains this intellectual momentum by advancing methodologica
...
l, theoretical and empirical insights. It presents and discusses resource grabbing research in a holistic manner by addressing how the rush for land and other natural resources, including water, forests and minerals, is intertwined with agriculture, mining, tourism, energy, biodiversity conservation, climate change, carbon markets, and conflict. The handbook is truly global and interdisciplinary, with case studies from the Global South and Global North, and chapter contributions from practitioners, activists and academics, with emerging and Indigenous authors featuring strongly across the chapters." (Publisher description)
more