May 13, 2013 by Phil Pardey - 0 comments

Economics of Science and Technology Policy: Course Announcement

L-R: Liebenberg, Beddow, UP Dept. Head Johann Kirsten, and Pardey

The Collaborative Masters of Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) program brings together students from 7 African universities. As part of this program, the University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics is offering a course on the economics of science and technology policy joint with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Tags: Productivity Measures, Spillovers, Production

Jun 25, 2012 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

SPAM to Feed Forthcoming Global Yield Gap Atlas

A group of researchers from the University of Nebraska and Wageningen University are setting out to determine just that through the production of an atlas.

Tags: Agricultural Productivity, Crop Distribution, Crop Models, Crop Yields, Models, Spatial Analysis, Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), Yield Analysis, Productivity

Jun 18, 2012 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

IFPRI Magazine Features MAPPR: Mapping African Agriculture

The June 2012 issue of Insights, IFPRI’s quarterly magazine, talks up HarvestChoice’s increasingly popular online tool: MAPPR. So friendly to use that a writer and a graphics designer combined wits to create the MAPPR-generated visuals for the article.

Tags: Africa, Agroecology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Mapping, MAPPR, Spatial Analysis, Sub-Saharan Africa, Demographics, Farming, Productivity, Markets

Jun 4, 2012 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

HarvestChoice Retreat, 2012

A recent HarvestChoice team retreat hardly fits Webster's idea of "an act or process of withdrawing especially from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable".

Tags: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, HarvestChoice, Targeting/Priority Setting, Policy

May 22, 2012 by Jawoo Koo - 0 comments

FourSquare 4 Farming?

While we were brainstorming “big ideas” at a recent working retreat, we stumbled upon the idea of promoting FourSquare as a tool to monitor smallholder farmers’ crop management practices.

Tags: Agricultural Statistics, Communication, Farming Systems, Social Media, Production, Farming

May 14, 2012 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

Esri features HarvestChoice (Again!) in FARMD Article

Fueled by a commitment to help society, agriculture is on Esri's mind. In fact, the World Bank asked them to write about it for FARMD: The Forum for Agricultural Risk Management in Development. And what did Esri –The global leader in Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications – write about? HarvestChoice!

Tags: Africa, Esri, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), HarvestChoice, Markets, Risk, Sub-Saharan Africa, Targeting/Priority Setting, Market Access, Risk, Markets, Policy

Apr 17, 2012 by Jeff Horwich - 0 comments

Risk: What It Means to Us, and Why It Matters (Video)

Risk: we all know what that means, right? But why is it such a critical part of our HarvestChoice portfolio, what does it mean when you look through the lens of farming in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Tags: Africa, Agricultural Pests, Agroecology, Climate, Communication, Crop Yields, Pest Management, Rainfall, Risk, Sub-Saharan Africa, United States, Videos, Weather, Weather and Climate, Risk, Pests and Diseases, Production, Farming, Productivity, Policy

Apr 3, 2012 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

Esri Website Features HarvestChoice MAPPR Interface

Whether you work directly with spatial data or simply reap the benefits by tapping into mapped data products, you’ve probably heard of Esri.

Tags: Esri, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), HarvestChoice, Infrastructure and Transportation, Mapping, MAPPR, Market Access, Time of Travel, Market Access, Markets

Mar 23, 2012 by Jeff Horwich - 0 comments

How We're Pioneering the Mapping of Pests (Video)

Jason Beddow of HarvestChoice and the University of Minnesota, along with Darren Kriticos of CSIRO, explain how HarvestChoice is revolutionizing the science of tracking -- and predicting -- the paths of devastating crop pests and diseases such as UG99.

Tags: Agricultural Pests, Agroecology, Cereals, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Communication, Crop Diseases, Mapping, Pest Management, Pest Mapping, Pest Modeling, Risk, Rusts, Stem Rust, UG99, Videos, Wheat, Risk, Land Cover , Pests and Diseases, Farming, Policy

Feb 21, 2012 by Jeff Horwich - 0 comments

CSIRO and HarvestChoice

CSIRO and HarvestChoice: Our Partnership to Take on Global Hunger

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and HarvestChoice are now working together to apply innovative, “bio-economic” approaches to improve the food security of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Together, our organizations will merge biological, environmental and economic tools to track global food pests and better target strategic investments to improve global food security. 

Tags: Africa, Agroecology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Communication, Crop Diseases, HarvestChoice, Models, Pest Management, Rusts, Stem Rust, Sub-Saharan Africa, Targeting/Priority Setting, UG99, Videos, Risk, Land Cover , Pests and Diseases, Production, Farming, Policy

Feb 11, 2012 by Ulrike Wood-Sichra - 0 comments

Spatial Allocation of Agricultural Production

SPAM2000 (any version) is based on a large set of data which centers as much as possible on the year 2000: land cover / land use (Boston University’s MODIS-derived land cover 2000 and JRC’s GLC2000), crop suitability (Global AEZ Zones 2000 by FAO and IIASA), irrigated areas (FAO and CESR of University of Kassel), population density (CIESIN), and, most importantly, national and sub-national crops statistics for 2000.

Tags: Agricultural Statistics, Agroecology, Crop Models, Crop Production, FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Models, Spatial Allocation, Spatial Analysis, Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), Land Cover , Production, Farming
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