The shared economy is the future of stuff.

The shared economy is the future of stuff, the future of Stuff Is having more and owning Less. If you’re one of the many people who’s embraced the sharing economy, you’ve probably stayed in someone else’s apartment or ridden in someone else’s car. 

 Maybe you’ve also done away with your clutter of DVDs, books, or CDs, since you can watch movies on Netflix, read books on Kindle, and hear music on Pandora. 

 

The concept of having more while owning less sounds paradoxical, but that’s exactly the scenario we’re finding ourselves in. Technology is enabling us to move away from ownership and towards an economy based on sharing and subscriptions. 

Platforms like Airbnb and Lyft or Uber connect renters and riders to landlords and drivers, and digitization means all kinds of media can be stored, streamed, or downloaded in seconds. 

 This concept has also found its way into agriculture,where sharing or leasing is the rule of the game. A platform where investors can lease a plot/ piece of land ,signify interest in an area of agribusiness,pays(subscribes) farming is carried out on behalf of investor and payout is done at the end of contract. see

In a new video from Big Think, author and WIRED founding executive editor Kevin Kelly explores the limits of what he calls the subscription economy and asks, “Is this the end of owning stuff?”

Farmers connect on I-CONNECT-AGRIC PLATFORM.

Farmers are using the E-platform I-CONNECT-AGRICULTURE to access information about livestock and pet care. This platform provides farming tips , such as disease prevention, provide access to drugs ,feed and tools.

The platform also connects  farmers to international standard practices by webinars, training and other resources . 

Introduction to various farming innovations around the world is also made  possible by  linking farmers with international farmers. Access to information that will scale the production level to remarkable heights.

Managing mental health and well-being of farmers .

Mental health and well-being of farmers . The general well-being of farmers and farmhand affect productivity directly or indirectly and this must be addressed to boost productivity and ensure adequate health care for farmers. 

 Farmers, farm family members, farmer representatives, safety professionals and people working on farms or living around farms all have a role to play in the health and safety as a poor mental health affects a person’s ability to cope with and manage their lives, particularly during personal change and life challenges. 

 People living and working in farms and agricultural premises in remote areas are more likely to suffer higher levels of loneliness and social exclusion more so than their urban counterparts. Farmers are under a lot of pressure, especially with high cost of feed and production generally and the state of the nation putting many under severe stress resulting in ill health and reduced production capacity. Farmers are under pressure because of financial threat as many sourced loans from banks, many are not insured and very many are operating below capacity . 

Farmers are also stressed because of lack of social support, anxiety and work stress as every farmer in a group are trying to stay afloat leaving little or no room for empathy or emotional intelligence. Farmers are also anxious especially when it comes to their crops or animals,thinking about pest invasion,sudden death or other unforeseen disasters,leading to unnecessary worry cycle that can kill the farmer,collapse the farm or lead to depression. 

Health and safety on farms are an aspect of safety codes on site,but now farmers health and wellbeing should be part of safety code to help farmers strike a balance and lead peaceful lives . 

 Seminars on mental health and well-being of farmers will help keep farmers and farms running for a long time and ensure food security.

Farmers dictate market prices with mobile phones.

A mobile phone revolution is redefining how small holder farmers buy and sell their produce, and shielding them from the unscrupulous middlemen who fix prices for their own benefit, with farmers recording tripling of yields by accessing market and comparing market prices on their own.

 The mobile phones send market prices information from different markets allowing farmers to compare and target the ripe time to dispose their produce. 

This has also meant that farmers can time when the supply of certain commodities is scarce, and cash in on the scarcity to sell their produce earning a decent income.continue

Agribusiness: Making money leasing farm machinery to farmers.

Farm machinery is part and parcel of a successful agribusiness but many farmers shun the equipment due to high costs. Entrepreneurs can cash in by investing in these farm equipment and then lease out to farmers for a fee.

For livestock farmers, depending on the size of investment, tractors, chaff-cutters, mowers, sprayers, forage harvesters and balers are some of the machinery to consider as they help in proper management and feeding of the livestock.

 Creative and  innovations to boost farming productivity is encouraged as it also helps grow the country’s economy in different ways.  Emphasis on irrigation to reduce dependence on rain-fed farming should also be of core interest of the in the face of limited farming land and idle land deemed un-farmable due to the prevailing dry conditions. 

 In crop farming, tractors, ploughs, planters, tillers and harrowers, among others, are essential as they facilitate better farming. continue

Agribusiness: leveraging technology in agriculture.

Drones are just one of many technologies whose use in the agricultural sector could cut operation costs and improve yields, helping a growing global population with shrinking resources to cultivate more food with fewer inputs Silicon Valley and the vast cornfields of the U.S. Midwest may appear to have little in common, but a growing relationship between big data and agriculture is poised to improve yields, reduce raw material use and decrease production costs. 

 Over the past year, the precision agriculture industry, which has pioneered the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and robotics to increase data collection and efficiency in agriculture, has continued to expand in the United States and around the world. As drone use in agriculture becomes even more prevalent and new achievements in machine learning and artificial intelligence are made, high technologies — the internet of things, big data, robotics and artificial intelligence — will overlap with agriculture more and more. 

 The concept of precision agriculture, or the use of data to enhance agricultural production, has been around for more than two decades. The field includes a range of different technologies, including GPS-guided tractors, yield and soil monitoring, variable rate applications for water and fertilizers, and data collection by satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. 

 Technology in agriculture will enable farmers to do more with less — especially as advances in sensor technology and computing technology continue — to keep up with rising demand for agricultural products over the next few decades. Using even one of the precision agriculture technologies can save farmers substantially on a per-acre basis. continue

FOOD SECURITY;INFO -GRAPHICS.

Where do you fit?

DISEASE RESISTANT PIGS PRODUCED USING GENE EDITING TECHNOLOGY.

A British animal genetics firm, working with U.S. scientists, has bred the world's first pigs resistant to a common viral disease, using the hot new technology of gene editing.Genus, which supplies pig and bull semen to farmers worldwide, said on Tuesday it had worked with the University of Missouri to develop pigs resistant to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSv).The condition, also known as blue-ear disease, can be fatal as it affects the animals' immune system and costs farmers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. There is no cure for this disease resulting in huge loses on affected farms.By using precise gene editing, the team from the University of Missouri was able to breed pigs that do not produce a specific protein necessary for the virus to spread in the animals. Their research was published in journal Nature Biotechnology.Early-stage studies showed the new PRRSv resistant pigs, when exposed to the virus, did not get sick and continued to gain weight normally. Editing the genes of living organisms holds out great promise for treating diseases and improving agricultural crops and animal species. But when applied to humans it could also be used to create "designer babies", prompting critics to call for a global ban on genetic modification of human embryos.The technology allows scientists to edit genes by using biological "scissors" that operate a bit like a word-processing program that can find and replace selected stretches of DNA.It has been put to work in laboratories around the world, even as the ethical and safety issues it raises are fiercely debated. PRRSv affects millions of pigs and costs the swine industry around $700 million a year in the United States and 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in Europe, according to a 2011 Iowa State University study cited by Genus. read more here; http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-pigs-genus-idUSKBN0TR1DL20151208#5wsWqylIrSm8pFo7.97

VETERINARIANS AND BIOSECURITY PROTOCOLS.

Veterinarians are often exposed to diseases that could be fatal, and this exposure has also been linked to further spread of infectious agents to other farms.The safety protocol for the vet and animals must be ensured for safety.


Bio security protocols are very important,and to this end training of vets and para-vets on these protocols are necessary.

 Diseases are emerging every time and others evolving, safety is necessary as more and more exposure cases are known and so many unreported and a lot more undiagnosed.


The health status of the vets are important just as that of the animals.Food animals ,companion animals and wildlife all poise a threat; safety is the watch word.

 Training on biosecurity protocols, use of latest disinfectants must be periodical and livestock owners should also know basic safety protocol.

Vets up-skill to prepare for future animal infectious disease emergencies in a bid to better manage future outbreaks of animal disease like avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and Hendra virus, veterinarians convened in Canberra for a hands-on training exercise.

 "Part of the training is to condition people to what actually happens, so it doesn't take them by surprise," he said. Dr Will Andrew"It gives them assurance of their procedure and that takes the pressure off people.

"Vets were presented with a host of disinfectant and quarantine protocols."If you go and visit a property and you don't carry out some of these procedures you run the risk, particularly as a vet, when you visit the next property of taking that disease with you," Dr Andrew said.

FARMERS ROLE IN REDUCING MALNUTRITION AND OBESITY.

obesity and malnutrition have become serious problems in the developing world.High calorific food and poor cuts of meat high in fat are more available, and people do not need to work physically as hard to produce it.Professor Jonathan Rushton, of the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London, called it a "wicked problem".You have significant numbers of people who are undernourished and an increasing number of people who are overweight...It's an indication that something is not right with our system.Professor Robyn Alders, University of Sydney "If we feed our pigs ad lib they will get too fat to stand up, but we are doing that to ourselves," he said at a conference at Sydney University, called Resetting the Australian Table: Adding Value and Adding Health.Professors of sociology, economics, veterinary science and foreign aid, paediatricians, soil scientists, and plant breeders, gathered to nut out the problem at interdisciplinary level. "You have ongoing significant numbers of people who are undernourished and an increasing and significant number of people who are overweight," she said."It's an indication that something is not right with our system."Global average meat consumption has nearly tripled in 50 years and people are increasingly disconnected from its production."It's probably been given a boost since the 1960s with increased productivity from grain based systems," said Professor Rushton."So our grain crops started to be more productive, which have gone into pigs, poultry and cattle systems."If you look at the growth in production of meat, we've gone from 25 kilos consumption of meat to 62 kilos per person per year globally. "There's a disconnect between the urbanised population and food systems."Professor Rushton said just as farmers care about what they feed their animals, they should care about how their food is processed."Food production is driven by powerful companies, driven by profit motives, which need to have more social responsibility," he said."Urbanised consumers are dependent on a food system they know very little about. Chicken has been marketed as a healthy, low fat meat, winning the National Heart Foundation's tick of approval and Australian consumption has doubled to 43 kilos per person a year.But Dr Dixon she told the conference that "we are contradictions" and are buying the wrong chicken.Coated in batter and deep fried, chicken's goodness was undone . Read more here;http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-20/obesity-and-malnutrition-need-joined-up-thinking/6710870

WOMEN,FOOD SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH.

http://www.wfo-oma.com/food-security/articles/women-farmers-guarantee-for-food-security.html

I-CONNECT- AGRICULTURE - APP.

New, fresh, and informative!!! PET CARE 2 APP. This app provides information on animals,diseases, prevention and treatment protocols.It also showcases new products,and also recommends products to farmers. The app is also a market place platform.Come on board. Get the app now.!!! A new app

AGRIBUSINESS : WOMEN EMPOWERMENT,MDGS AND POULTRY VALUE CHAIN.

AGRIBUSINESS : WOMEN EMPOWERMENT,MDGS AND POULTRY VALUE CHAIN. The poultry value chain is a means of empowering women,this will in turn ensure food security while also encouraging children to go to school.The chain has various phases that can accommodate women; the egg sales/distribution, raising birds,selling packaged chicken,live chicken and also selling various chicken parts and opening food courts. AGRIBUSINESS : WOMEN EMPOWERMENT,MDGS AND POULTRY VALUE CHAIN. Women make up a large % of farmers,that ensure food is available for the home front and for sale as well. When women are provided with chicks/space/feed/cages; any form of seed capital will ensure a turn around that they can live on.The women are responsible for the upkeep of their children,where the mothers have no means of livelihood,the children suffer and cant go to school. When women are empowered,more kids go to school and the school feeding programme is another area of empowerment.The women in an area/community could be organized to groups/subgroups; where a group produces,and other group prepares provided food stuff for the school children.This way at least the children are sure of nutritious meals at home and school.

Engendering bigger impact: making the other half count

Engendering bigger impact: making the other half count

Mobile phones helping farmers make better decisions

Mobile phones helping farmers make better decisions The use of phones are enormous with various add-ons everyday,the use of various apps just expands the scope of use dramatically. Farmers are getting real time information on animal health and production. Join the train: text vet to 35818 .

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