FAO working with agriculture ministry, ICT Division to digitalise rural economy

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is working with the Ministry of Agriculture and the ICT Division to unleash the potential of digital agriculture in bridging the urban-rural divide and integrate rural areas into the digital economy to ensure food and nutrition security.

In this regard, FAO organised a special visit by the State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak to Tulatoli village located at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar on Friday.

The FAO regional office for Asia and the Pacific developed the Digital Village Initiative to support existing and potential digital villages, increase farm productivity and profitability, and combat hunger, poverty, and inequality in rural farming communities.

Smallholder farmers connected with FAO’s digital village initiative can receive various e-services from government and/or private actors. Apart from that, the digital village initiative can serve as an information exchange and knowledge-sharing platform between farmers, groups, and communities.

With further transformation, it can be an entry point for digitalization, employment generation including youth male and female, modernization of agriculture, and income generation.

In total there are 60 digital villages across Barishal, Rangpur and Cox’s Bazar. These Digital villages are being operated by producer organisations who are currently maintaining 57 virtual call centres to aggregate produce for collective marketing and facilitate bulk procurement of agricultural inputs.

These Digital Villages promote 23 digital agriculture applications developed or supported by the government. They also provide rural farmers with digital literacy training so that they can take advantage of new opportunities.

Digitising the agricultural value chains, especially for small-scale producers, requires business acumen. FAO provides a full range of support in this area - from production to distribution.

The visit included Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i, ICT Division; Ashish Ranjan Nath, Deputy Director (In-Charge), Department of Agricultural Extension, Cox’s Bazar; and Imran Hossain Shajib, Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, as the chief guest of the event.

Nearly 50 farmers, community members, and officers from the FAO were also present at the event.