Archive for August, 2007

Agriculture and Technology

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation


“This e-book provides an overview of successes and failures in the development and adoption of ICT in agriculture and the rural sector. They provide illuminating case studies of technological innovation with lessons applicable for agricultural production, the rural sector and national strategic priorities. They emphasize that ICT development as perceived by the eventual beneficiary is a critical success factor for anyone working in ICT.”

Posted in ICTs and Agriculture | No Comments »

EU Food Traceability Research Project

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Promoting European Traceability Excellence and Research (PETER)

“Promoting European Traceability Excellence & Research (PETER) is an essential Specific Support Action that provides an international forum for focusing and disseminating the results of European Commission’s €100M investment in research on food traceability. There is an urgent need for rapid consolidation and dissemination of European expertise to developing countries and SMEs so that they can have access to the global markets that now exist.”

Posted in General, Tracing & Tracking | No Comments »

Fair Tracing says Thank You!

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

Adel & Vishal at UCL Lab

Over the summer, Vishal Shah (l.) and Adel Haider (r.), students in computer science at UCL, have spent 10 weeks working with the Fair Tracing Project. Vishal and Adel have been working on our user interface and have programmed our Fair Tracing prototype so we can now include text, photos, video and audio files for the different actors in the value chain. They also included Maria Montero and Ashima Chopra’s information on the production processes in Chile and India. Above all, they have very patiently collected feedback from users and responded with plenty of new ideas. Lots remains to be done on the prototype, but Adel and Vishal have helped us take it another step forwards. From all of us on the Fair Tracing Team – Thank You!    

Posted in Fair Tracing project activities, General, Technology, Tracing & Tracking, UI | No Comments »

Sainsbury’s in £1m Fairtrade plan

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

BBC News — Sainsbury’s in £1m Fairtrade plan

“UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to launch a £1m fund to enable farmers in the developing world to join the Fairtrade initiative…

Initial projects under consideration include helping rural farmers in Uganda sell dried fruits for export.

Another possible scheme is a credit fund for small-scale peanut farmers in Malawi to buy seeds or machinery to boost production.”

Posted in Fairtrade, Media | No Comments »

Nokia opens Design Studio in Bangalore, India

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

“Mobile phone company Nokia has teamed up with a design school in Bangalore to open its first studio in India.  Nokia will work on new ideas for India’s fast-growing mobile phone users together with students from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.”

Posted in Mobile Devices | No Comments »

A Supply Chain Solution for Indian Farmers

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

ITC e-Choupal

“ITC’s International Business Division, one of India’s largest exporters of agricultural commodities, has conceived e-Choupal as a more efficient supply chain aimed at delivering value to its customers around the world on a sustainable basis. The e-Choupal model has been specifically designed to tackle the challenges posed by the unique features of Indian agriculture, characterised by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of numerous intermediaries, among others.”

Posted in Supply Chains | No Comments »

New Nokia R&D Facility in Bangalore, India

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

Nokia R&D Facility in Bangalore, India
 

“Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications today announced that it has expanded its Research and Development (R&D) facility in Bangalore with the inauguration of a 210,000 square foot development centre at the Prestige Tech Park in the IT corridor. The Bangalore R&D centre, the largest Nokia site of its type in India, focuses on development work for software platforms, chipsets and high-end Nokia mobile devices.” 

Posted in Mobile Devices | No Comments »

Open Source Methods and Social Software

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Have a look at the Greenmonk blog. It’s about using the open source model in sustainability and fair trade

“Greenmonk is a community dedicated to using open source methods and social software to improve the environment and encourage good behaviours. As Marks and Spencer says: This is Plan A, Because there is No Plan B.”

Posted in General | No Comments »

Snow in Curico, Chile

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Our project partners in Chile, the wine co-operative Los Robles, are experiencing a heavy winter – there was even snow in Curico, in the Chilean central valley – a very rare event. This is the photo they sent us last week.

Los Robles nevado

Posted in General | No Comments »