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 Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), 22 February, 2021 EFITA newsletter / 973 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment Do not miss the Virus Jokes in English and French > Coronavirus 4 Coronavirus 3 Coronavirus 2 Ant joke Coronavirus 1 > Virus et autres sujets Virus 6 Virus 5 Virus 4 Virus 3 Virus 2 Virus 1 > Les dernières histoire de l'oncle Paul (Jamet) (mostly in French) > Les dernières histoires de Georges Larroque (mostly in French) > Les dernières histoires de Michel Gil-Antoli (mostly in French) > Les dernières histoires de Jean Pinon et Luc Becker (mostly in French) > Et encore... et encore, encore The informatique-agricole.org site now offers you the possibility of subscribing the RSS feeds of its two newsletters See RSS feeds to implement to ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter To unsubscribe this newsletter, please contact me directely: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net if this link Unsubscribe does not work. Please note that I changed the presentation of the links that are embedded in the name of the web service. 
To correspond with me (GW), please use this address: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net To subscribe the efita newsletter (please ask your friends and colleagues to test this link) Efita Newsletters subscription Weekly newsletters about ICT in Agriculture in English and French Both newsletters have around 14000 subscribers. >>> Last weekly EFITA Newsletters in English (created in 1999) Efita Newsletters >>> Last weekly AFIA Newsletters in French (created more than 20 years ago in 1997) Afia Newsletters >>> Statistics for the last efita newsletter >>> Last issue of the afia newsletter >>> Last available satistics for the afia newsletter Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Les tailleurs de pierre ou paysage à la carrière ou ardoisière, 1890, Paul Sérusier
Today, more than 95% of French farms are covered by a mobile network. Two thirds of respondents use 4G at their head office (66.9%) Green: Farms / Yellow: fields The Economist regularly updates a magnificent global table describing the Covid-19 pandemic situation The Economist gives as essential criterion the excess of mortality week after week ... and I added to the table of The Economist a column on the right side which is like a cheating index. Guess who is cheating the most? Is it astonishing? A lot of wrong things are being said about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world. All of us French people, graduated pessimists, tend to think that our situation could not be worse. We can also be wrong about the situation in other countries by painting it in pink in the case of the United Kingdom which vaccines very well, but which has: - as many deaths as in Spain, - 50 % more deaths than us in France, or than in Brazil that we paint in black because we don't like Mr. Bolsonaro very much (neither do I, but that's not a reason to propagate errors), - or 100% more than in Germany. Source The Economist "Time period" in red: late update "Reduction" in red: less than 25% reduction in mortality due to covid-19
UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) and Defra partner (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs) to launch £12m Farming Innovation Pathways funding competition 1 March - 25 April 2021 UKRI and Defra have today announced their R&D collaboration for an exciting new funding opportunity, Farming Innovation Pathways. The competition will be delivered through UKRI’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Transforming Food Production, aimed at developing new and existing farm-focused innovations. Farming Innovation Pathways will ensure practical translation of leading research in agriculture. This can directly benefit farmers and support them to address the challenges of productivity, sustainability, and net zero emissions in UK farming. This is the first competition of its kind following the UK’s departure from the EU. It will pave the way for research and development (R&D) to turbocharge future innovation in the agricultural sector. >>> Transforming Food Production programme Farming Innovation Pathways will act as a bridge between the final stages of the Transforming Food Production programme and the launch of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) R&D Innovation package in 2022. It will build on the ground-breaking innovations already funded by the Transforming Food Production programme. This has seen advancement in areas as diverse as insect farming, sustainable livestock feed, agricultural robotics and autonomous growing systems. Similarly, Farming Innovation Pathways will be open to ideas addressing challenges across the agri-food sector. Priorities will include robotics and automation, which could include things like vision-guided robotic weeding systems, and novel food production systems, including vertical farming. >>> Developing novel technological solutions Funded through Defra’s Future Farming & Countryside Programme, this £12 million opportunity will bring together farmers, growers and businesses, enabling them to develop novel technological solutions. Through its dual-pronged approach, the competition will support a range of exciting projects. Ranging from the initial spark of an idea through to developing transformational technologies that could revitalise farming practice and be taken up across the sector. Crucially, Farming Innovation Pathways aims to support the adoption of innovative technologies and practices, so it will be vital for applicants to develop solutions with the engagement of farmers and growers. See ukri.org Information provided by Ian HOUSEMAN E-mail: ian.houseman(a)btconnect.com The Internet of Food and Farm 2020 project is delighted to invite you to its final event 16 - 18 March - As IoF2020 is coming to an end, we are now celebrating its legacy. And there is no better way of doing that than together with all of you! Hence, we are passionately working on a digital event to meet, debate and exchange knowledge from a safe distance. See iof2020.eu Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Jeunes lavandières remontant de la rivière (Le Hüelgoat), par Sérusier, 1891:
How did we the future yesterday?? See the incredible collection developed by Alain Fraval If you think things are really getting worse and worse ... To use this graphic, click on the link below and select countries or regions of the world on the left side of the screen ... How Much Do You Know About Agricultural Progress? Remember that 1 bushel per acre = 1 boisseau par acre = 0,67 q /ha See humanprogress.org Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Jeune bretonne à la faucille, par Paul Sérusier
Massive turnaround due to precison ag Australian farmer Adam Schreurs from Victoria says a trial to explore the application of precision agriculture has turned the worst performing part of his farm into the best performing part. “It’s a massive turnaround in two years”, he says. See futurefarming.com Interview: Bayer’s digital arm is being rolled out in Europe Bayer’s digital arm, The Climate Corporation, is further expanding its position worldwide. Europe is the newest market and an important growth market for the company’s main product: FieldView. Mike Stern, Head of Climate Corp and Digital Farming at Bayer Crop Science, explains why. See futurefarming.com Drones: senseFly Launches eBee Ag fixed-wing mapping drone eBee Ag is to help farmers, agronomists and service providers efficiently capture aerial data. See futurefarming.com Satellite data: Swarm launches low-cost global satellite data service Swarm Technologies claims to have developed the world’s lowest cost live satellite communications network. The Swarm network is now commercially available, for $ 5/month per device. See futurefarming.com Thai precision ag startup ListenField gets strategic backing from Kubota, AFN, by Jack Ellis ListenField, a Thai precision agritech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Japanese agricultural equipment maker Kubota as part of a wider strategic partnership. See agfundernews.com
Drones: Drone counts strawberries from the air Flanders Make developed a drone that uses AI to count the number of strawberries from the air. See futurefarming.com Water management: Myriota and Goanna Ag help farmers optimise water management GoRain and GoTank are designed as innovative sensor systems for water management on farms. See futurefarming.com Argentine ag blockchain platform ucrop.it raises seed funding, AFN, by Lauren Manning Traceability continues to be an area of interest for various stakeholders in the agrifood supply chain, particularly after Covid-19 raised questions about the safety of our food system. “We are solving a verification problem, which is to understand and unbox how crops are being produced from seed to harvest for a world demanding more sustainable and food security practices,” Diego Hoter, CEO and co-founder at ucrop.it, told AFN. See agfundernews.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory (?????): "The Water Mill", ca. 1880, by Anton Mauve (Milwaukee Art Museum)
Become more efficient by tomorrow: A guide to farm management systems New research!, AFN, by guest contributors: Yulia Poroshenko & Artem Rudko Yulia Poroshenko is founder, and Artem Rudko is key account manager, at AgroHub in Kyiv, Ukraine. AgroHub uses data to help farmers make better, data-driven business decisions to increase revenue, reduce cost and risk, become and become more profitable. It creates a community of advanced farmers, facilitates the exchange of best practices between them, and enables data-driven decision making by blending analytics and ag expertise. Farmers only have so much influence over the world they work in. Every farm has to carry out an identical set of tasks, perform typical functions needed for implementing a range of actions, and accumulate and distribute resources in order to boost their bottom line. Producers cannot change pricing or volatility of the markets – but it is within their power to choose instruments that can improve their own efficiency. …/… See agfundernews.com AgroHub Farm Management Systems 2021 The agricultural industry is actively developing systems for automating management processes, but the abundance of choices may be confusing. To help, AgroHub – supported by AgFunder and Top Lead – has carried out research to create a guide to farm management systems (FMS). See agfundernews.com Producing a Low Carbon Intensity Crop on Unused Land Over Winter… - CoverCress was developed from pennycress. - Covers and protects open soil between corn and soybean crops. - Produces an oilseed crop for food, bioenergy and animal feed. - Dual positive impact on carbon, as it produces a low carbon intensity feedstock and sequesters carbon as well! - Fits on 30-32M acres that each year rotate from corn to soybean. See covercress.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Huisje aan een sloot, by Anton Mauve (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Biden’s climate plan includes ‘carbon bank’ for farmers who adopt regen practices, AFN, by Lauren Manning - US President Joe Biden’s climate change plan, the Climate 21 Project, calls for the establishment of a ‘carbon bank’ that would pay farmers, ranchers, and foresters to store carbon using regenerative agriculture practices. - The government-owned Commodity Credit Corporation would be tasked with setting up the bank and offering credits for sequestration. So far, the Biden administration is suggesting $1 billion to purchase carbon credits at $20 per ton. - The plan hopes to turn various regions across the US into carbon sinks, aiming to offset the country’s 7,000 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. See agfundernews.com Report: Climate-smart tech needs better investment despite growing calls for soil health and carbon farming, AFN, by Lauren Manning Everyone agrees that soil health is something to address in our food system, but is there enough capital coming to the table to clean up our dirt? A new report called ‘Transformative Investment in Climate-Smart Agriculture,’ published by US Farmers & Ranchers in Action (USFRA), analyzes the current state of soil health tech adoption while also pinpointing new sources of capital that could be used to improve on-farm adoption. See agfundernews.com GM plant grows insect sex pheromones as alternative to crop pesticides, by Joan Conrow The revolutionary research is being done by ISCA, Inc., a “green” agricultural technology company based in Riverside, Calif., in collaboration with Lund University in Sweden and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. See allianceforscience.cornell.edu
Looking Back at 2020 and Forward to 2021 (US Agricultural Research Service) Hard to believe 2020 has come and gone. The year certainly brought many unique challenges and difficulties for all of us. Virtual meetings, remote schooling, teleworking, and virtual conferences all became the "new normal" for many people, including us at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)... See tellus.ars.usda.gov Chinese Scientists Uncover Gene for Rice Adaption to Low Soil Nitrogen See english.cas.cn Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: A farmer holding a spade by Anton Mauve (Dutch, 1838-1888)
President Biden tells that story to underscore the dignity of labor... Joe Biden’s dad struggled in a series of jobs, including as a used-car salesman. One day the owner of the used car lot held a Christmas party, and threw out silver dollars to watch his employees scramble on the floor for them. Repulsed, the elder Biden took his wife and walked out of the dealership and away from the job. See NYT Open: The Story of Human Progress, By Johan Norberg Progress is inevitably related to the number of people who are connected and have a certain freedom to innovate and imitate. Markets have brought us unprecedented prosperity compared to every other era of human history. And yet, populists and authoritarians of the Left and Right declare that the world is a mess and that we need strongmen to take control. If we make such amazing progress, why do we feel so uncomfortable with it and sometimes tear it all down? The answer lies in the dual nature of our humanity. Human beings are traders—curious, adventurous and willing to cooperate for mutual benefit—but we are also tribalistic, suspicious, hostile, and quick to divide the world into groups of us and them. See humanprogress.org Doctors Are Opening Digital Front Doors, by Katherine Revello Polling suggests 76 percent of people today view telehealth as an option they’re willing to consider for medical care – even after the pandemic has receded. The telehealth trend is poised to put many patients in greater control of their healthcare and shows how social distancing has forced healthcare providers to embrace digital front doors. See humanprogress.org Joseph Lister: The Father of Modern Surgery / Heroes of Progress Ep. 12 See video See bibliographic record
Brexit Britain's victory over the EU on Covid vaccination is not what it seems, by Jean Quatremer .../... True, Britain got a month’s head start on the EU by approving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the start of December, and then AstraZeneca’s at the end of that month. It had to accept the terms offered by the pharmaceutical companies, however, both in paying a higher price per dose, and by waiving their civil liability in the event of adverse effects. But, and there’s a very big but, the UK’s “success” is a really an illusion: because to be fully effective, the vaccine requires two doses. And only 0.80% of the UK population has received both shots, less than that of France (0.92%), and a long way behind Denmark, which has 2.87% of its population fully vaccinated. .../... The EU does not have, and never will have, the flexibility of a country: it is not even a federation but a simple confederation, which only has the powers that its member states are willing to give it. Bear in mind, too, that the EU had no experience in public health before the start of the Covid crisis. With only an embryonic union for health policy in place, the 27 member states had to improvise. This was essential to avoid a repeat of the deadly free-for-all that we saw last March on masks and medical equipment, as member states tried to outbid each other, Germany and France blocked consignments of PPE leaving their territories, and Italy was left to beg for help. When it came to vaccines, the 27 agreed very early on, under the leadership of Berlin and Paris, to pool procurement. All agreed to guarantee that each would have equal access, proportionate to their population size, and above all, that each would apply the same vaccine purchase conditions. Otherwise, how would, say, Luxembourg or Finland have fared against the pharmaceutical giants? .../... Of course, Germany or France acting alone, as the UK did, might have been able to secure enough vaccines to meet their needs, but certainly not under conditions as favourable. Most important of all, smaller countries would have been left high and dry. Solidarity is one of the great virtues of the European Union and it has implemented it without complaint, not only among its citizens but also with regard to the rest of the world. African countries in particular will benefit from the surplus jabs ordered by the EU. And this is a well thought out solidarity, by the way, since only vaccinating Europe’s population makes no sense in a globalised world. Could the EU have moved with more speed? No doubt, but it would have had to kowtow more to big pharma, and would have been roundly criticised for doing so. Likewise, blaming Brussels for what are essentially production issues is just nonsense: first, production is down to the manufacturing firms and, second, they have never before had to deliver such volumes in such tight timeframes. See theguardian.com Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Gathering wood (Holzsammeln), by Anton Mauve (Dutch, 1838-1888)
The doctor The doctor to the patient: 'You are very sick' The patient to the doctor: 'Can I get a second opinion?' The doctor again: 'Yes, you are very ugly too...' The boys Two boys were arguing when the teacher entered the room. The teacher says, "Why are you arguing?" One boy answers: "We found a ten dollor bill and decided to give it to whoever tells the biggest lie." "You should be ashamed of yourselves," said the teacher, "When I was your age I didn't even know what a lie was." The boys gave the ten dollars to the teacher. School Mother: "Did you enjoy your first day at school?" Girl: "First day? Do you mean I have to go back tomorrow? Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Boer met zijn ploeg, by Anton Mauve (Dutch, 1838-1888)
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