A farmer reads a message on a cell phone while working on a rice paddy field outside Hanoi, Vietnam. REUTERS/Kham
Poor Nations Need Help to Use Big Data to Tackle Disease, Poverty: Expert
From boosting crop yields to controlling the spread of disease, big data analytics is increasingly being used by poor nations to tackle development challenges—but a lack of technology infrastructure is slowing efforts. Many developing nations are attempting to collect, organize, and analyze large, varied data sets to uncover patterns and trends to help address poverty.
In China's Murky Waters, Global Sewage Firms Seek Rewards
Global sewage and water treatment firms are eyeing opportunities in an unsavory place: a growing pile of waste in China, the world's most populous nation. The country has been for years battling contamination from fertilizer run-offs, heavy metals, and untreated sewage. To reverse this, China has pledged to lay 126,000 kilometers of new sewage pipes by 2020, enough to circle the globe three times, and raise urban wastewater treatment by 50 million cubic meters a day, equal to 20,000 Olympic-size pools.
How the Internet of Things Is Fueling the F-35 of the Farm Fields
Eric Froebel is a man who truly appreciates the sophistication of modern farm equipment—that a state-of-the-art-tractor is more like a fighter jet than the family car. Froebel, who is the Director of Global Engineering Processes and IT Architecture at AGCO Corporation, is not exaggerating. Loaded with sensor-driven telematics, GPS positioning, automatic guidance systems, and wireless data transfer technology, it’s easy to imagine a top-of-the-line tractor as the F-35 of the farm field. And Froebel sees such high-tech machines as a present-day necessity.
Small Company, Mighty Mission: City Girl Coffee Aims to Source Solely from Female Farmers
Nearly 25 years after her parents started a tiny coffee roasting company in a basement in Duluth, Minnesota, Alyza Bohbot agreed to take full ownership of the family business. Acquainting herself with a primarily male-driven coffee industry, she created City Girl Coffee in 2015, a brand that aims to source from women-owned and managed farms—from Brazil to Indonesia—while working to raise consumer awareness of gender inequality in the world’s coffee-producing communities.