The digital revolution also provides opportunities to collect better data. In an age when a satellite can determine instantly how much wheat is in a field, it is a shame to ask countries to use limited resources to send enumerators around with pen, paper, and tape measure. What we get is a lot of wasted time and inaccurate or incomplete data. The digital revolution can improve the quality of critical data while freeing up people to do other high-impact work.Gates also spoke about using genome sequencing technology, which has rapidly declined in cost over the last decade, to improve yields and have plants resistance to drought and disease. While his remarks generally focused on sub-Saharan Africa, they certainly apply to the agricultural sector in Latin America.
The problem is that the country programs, agencies, and research centers don’t have expertise in digital agriculture, and they don’t have the time to build it from scratch. The real expertise lies with private sector companies, and with rapidly growing countries like Brazil and China where the agricultural sector is booming.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Bill Gates on innovation in agriculture
Bill Gates speech at the FAO:
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While agriculture is not my area of expertise, I understand that the jury is still out on the whole question of promoting the use of genetically-modified (GM) seed and agrochemicals in developing countries, as spearheaded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Strengthening Food Security initiative in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The implications, as in the case of corn, are cultural, economic and even in terms of public health.
More fuel against Bill Gates' view.
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