Unlocking innovation for food and farming- Caribbeanlifenews.com
LIMA, Dec. 13, 2014 (IPS) - The digital revolution that is continuing to develop at lightening speed is an exciting new ally in our fight for global food security in the face of climate change.
CGIAR Climate's insight:
The potential of this new partnership was put to the test this week at the climate negotiations in Peru, when the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) hosted a 24-hour “hackathon”, giving Latin American developers and computer programmers first access to the cloud-based data.
The challenge was to transform the available data into actionable knowledge that will help farmers better adapt to climate variability.
The results were inspiring. The winning innovation from Colombian team Geomelodicos helps farmers more accurately predict when to plant their crops each season. Gone are the days when farmers could rely on almanacs for predicting seasonal planting dates, as climate change has made these predictions unreliable.