2024 Seminars:
11
Dec
iSDA’s Virtual Agronomist: Expert Advice for Every FarmerOutline: Virtual Agronomist (VA) revolutionizes agronomic advisory services through its AI-enabled chatbot, guiding farmers throughout the cropping season. It provides farmers with timely advice on land preparation, crop variety selection, nutrient management planning, and the diagnosis and management of weeds, pests, diseases, and nutrient deficiencies. At harvest the farmer receives a report on attained yields and what factors have constrained yields. VA tailors its advice to each farmer’s unique circumstances, considering field location, growing season stage, past management practices, and individual preferences.
Key Points of Discussion:
– How does Virtual Agronomist combine science-based agronomic models with Large Language Models (LLMs)?
– How was iSDA’s Soil Map (iSDAsoil) created, and how accurate are the predictions?
– How has Virtual Agronomist been made accessible to populations with varying literacy levels and mobile connectivity?
– What level of impact and adoption has Virtual Agronomist had?
Panelists(s): Keith Shepherd, Jamie Collinson, Matt Miller, Bruce Kisitu, Paul Chunga, Kodjo Gbedevi, Rejoice Musiiwa, Abigail Wairimu, Monalisa Mutesi – Innovative Solutions for Decision Agriculture (iSDA), UK
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Key Points of Discussion:
– How does Virtual Agronomist combine science-based agronomic models with Large Language Models (LLMs)?
– How was iSDA’s Soil Map (iSDAsoil) created, and how accurate are the predictions?
– How has Virtual Agronomist been made accessible to populations with varying literacy levels and mobile connectivity?
– What level of impact and adoption has Virtual Agronomist had?
Panelists(s): Keith Shepherd, Jamie Collinson, Matt Miller, Bruce Kisitu, Paul Chunga, Kodjo Gbedevi, Rejoice Musiiwa, Abigail Wairimu, Monalisa Mutesi – Innovative Solutions for Decision Agriculture (iSDA), UK
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27
Nov
New remote sensing tools for monitoring nitrogen and water status and estimating requirementsOutline: This presentation discusses the immense potential of machine learning and deep learning in particular to assess nitrogen and water status treatments in field crops. Through a series of case on sandy soils and humid climate prone to abiotic stresses, valuable insights are provided relevant for further research but also for practical implementation of deficit irrigation, precision nitrogen fertilization and growth assessment.
Speaker(s): Dr. Kiril Manevski, Aarhus University
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Speaker(s): Dr. Kiril Manevski, Aarhus University
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13
Nov
Farming Practices to Enhance Biodiversity across BiomesOutline: Intensive agriculture for food and feed production is a key driver of global biodiversity loss. It is generally assumed that more extensive practices are needed to reconcile food production with biodiversity conservation. In a literature review across biomes and for seven taxa, we retrieved 35 alternative practices (e.g. no-tillage, cover crops, organic fertilizer) from 331 studies. We found that no single practice enhanced all taxonomic groups, but that overall less intensive agricultural practices are beneficial to biodiversity. Nevertheless, often practices had no effects observed and very rarely contrasting impacts on aboveground versus below ground taxa. Species responses to practices were mostly consistent across biomes, except for fertilization. We conclude that alternative practices generally enhance biodiversity, but there is also variation in impacts depending on taxonomic group or type of practice. This suggests that a careful selection of practices is needed to secure biodiversity across taxa in future food systems worldwide.
Speaker(s): Dr. Cozim Melges Felipe, Wageningen University
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Speaker(s): Dr. Cozim Melges Felipe, Wageningen University
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30
Oct
Leveraging Precision Agriculture for sub-Saharan African Agriculture (postponed)Outline: This presentation focuses on the ability of precision agriculture to improve farm productivity and profitability, adoption decisions, the opportunities, and challenges of precision agriculture for SSA, and the role of data or data management for the deployment of precision agriculture, The presentation provides practical examples of the successes and failures of precision agriculture for smallholders in Africa, and provide insights into the economics of precision agriculture. Finally, the presentation will touch on the need for integration of precision agriculture into the existing formal and informal capacity building, and training programmes in SSA
Speaker(s): Dr Kwame Frimpong, Senior Scientist, APNI
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Speaker(s): Dr Kwame Frimpong, Senior Scientist, APNI
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3
July
Moving Toward Data-Driven Research through Agronomic PracticesOutline: Trying to give a new perspective to the gaps in data-driven decision making for the ag research industry, in this presentation we will go higher to examine our research methods for improving agricultural practices. The ability to solve complex problems in Life Science is not limited any more as new tools become available. The only gap we have right now, is the ability to provide the right data, in quality and quantity that can represent the complex problems we try to solve.
To address these issues, we will go over the history of research and what has become the obstacle for fast innovation development. Learning from the past can open new perspectives for the future. Several examples will be presented to examine gaps in the ability to innovate and some options for future solutions.
Speaker(s): Dr Sagi Katz, VP of Agronomy at Agmatix
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To address these issues, we will go over the history of research and what has become the obstacle for fast innovation development. Learning from the past can open new perspectives for the future. Several examples will be presented to examine gaps in the ability to innovate and some options for future solutions.
Speaker(s): Dr Sagi Katz, VP of Agronomy at Agmatix
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19
June
Development of Recommendations and Advisories for Precision Nutrient ManagementOutline: The presentation will share the overall approach of EiA to develop tailored recommendations. It will start by highlighting the key pressing challenges for farmers in key priority areas of focus, discuss the constraints that have hindered development of tailored recommendations and how these are now overcome. Results will be shared on some of the activities such as fertilizer recommendations for Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya and discuss some of the areas required for greater advancements in the recommendations space. It will also show the new thinking of multi-stakeholder platforms as collaboration spaces with different stakeholders for advancing agronomy at scale solutions.
Speaker(s): Dr. Job Kihara is a soil health expert with over 20 years’ of extensive experience mostly within smallholder farmer contexts in sub-Sahara Africa. He is a passionate agronomist focused on improving crop productivity through integrated soil fertility management approaches and cropping systems improvements. Recent research interests include addressing the limitations of micronutrients in soils for yields and produce quality (agronomic biofortification). Job is team leader on soil and water management within the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the co-lead of the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) initiative of the One CGIAR, working to accelerate development and delivery of agronomy at scale solutions to millions of farmers.
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Speaker(s): Dr. Job Kihara is a soil health expert with over 20 years’ of extensive experience mostly within smallholder farmer contexts in sub-Sahara Africa. He is a passionate agronomist focused on improving crop productivity through integrated soil fertility management approaches and cropping systems improvements. Recent research interests include addressing the limitations of micronutrients in soils for yields and produce quality (agronomic biofortification). Job is team leader on soil and water management within the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the co-lead of the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) initiative of the One CGIAR, working to accelerate development and delivery of agronomy at scale solutions to millions of farmers.
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22
May
Soil Hive: Varda’s Soil Data Platform to Expand Access to Soil DataOutline: The sampling and analysis or visual examination of soil to assess its health status are widely practiced from plot to national scales. However, available data are often not made easily accessible and new data are not always shared with the wider public, creating a partial understanding of soil processes and health status across different geographies, as well as a misuse of resources.
To address these challenges, Varda has created an interactive digital soil platform, named SoilHive, which provides an overview of existing soil data across the globe, facilitates the identification of soil data gaps across regions, and supports soil data sharing and interoperability. SoilHive users can define a region of interest, browse, and download the soil data available. Users can also compare soil data across different data sources and geographies over time.
Speaker(s): Simone Sala
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To address these challenges, Varda has created an interactive digital soil platform, named SoilHive, which provides an overview of existing soil data across the globe, facilitates the identification of soil data gaps across regions, and supports soil data sharing and interoperability. SoilHive users can define a region of interest, browse, and download the soil data available. Users can also compare soil data across different data sources and geographies over time.
Speaker(s): Simone Sala
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13
March
Global and regional trends in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium nutrient use efficiencyOutline: Quantifying nutrient inputs and outputs allows calculation of indicators such as nutrient balance (surplus if positive or deficit if negative) and nutrient use efficiency that help in monitoring of agricultural productivity and sustainability across the world. In this CPCN seminar we present a global database of country-level budget estimates for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in cropland for the period 1961 to 2021. Results highlight the wide range in nutrient use and use efficiencies across geographic regions, nutrients, and time, but they also show how, over time, countries follow a general trajectory of change as agriculture intensifies, new technologies get adopted and policies change. We conclude by discussing future research directions, including roles the CPCN can play.
Speaker(s): Achim Dobermann
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Speaker(s): Achim Dobermann
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