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Blockchain, drones, data-driven precision agriculture – the ICTforAg conference has revolved around major breakthroughs and evolving trends in agriculture and technology since its founding in 2015. We know the loudest buzzwords will again be at ICTforAg’s fourth annual conference this year, but which emerging trends hold the most promise?

Register now to join us on June 14th and follow this insider’s guide to attend the cutting-edge sessions on this year’s agenda.

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Learn the Power of Insurance

Agricultural insurance innovations are making significant impact in farmers’ lives, especially in light of destructive climate change and the invasive fall armyworm that is overwhelming parts of Africa.

• The breakout session on Unlocking Smallholder Resilience with Insurance will explore how technology is helping build inclusive insurance markets and speeding up post-disaster recovery for smallholder farmers. It will feature the new report, Using Digital Tools to Expand Access to Agricultural Insurance, developed under the mSTAR Project that provides an analytical framework to help USAID staff and implementing partners expand access to agriculture insurance.

Understand the Complexity of Data Privacy

Data privacy has been a concern for us for years, yet smallholder farmers, some of whom have never used a computer, now are on the data radar of multiple private companies.

• The breakout session on The Reality of Farmer Data Privacy & Security will look at the tradeoffs between data ownership, trust, and digital farmer profiles, with a special emphasis on the power dynamics between different agribusiness actors.
• The breakout session on How to Use Data to Provide Better Financial Services will dive into new services, tools, and business models that can increase financial inclusion and overall ecosystem resilience.

Gain Insights from New Contexts

For the first time, ICTforAg will focus on Eastern Europe, where projects are generally associated with democracy and governance, and Mexico, where you’re probably surprised to learn that USAID has a presence.

• The breakout session Three Approaches to Creating Digital Market Linkages in Georgia will highlight how different competitive models can induce complimentary private-sector responses that achieve development outcomes.
• The lightning talk How to Make Sure Smallholder Farmers Take Action on Your Message? will showcase a new tool we can use to understand the propensity of our constituents to actually change their behavior based on our intervention.

Register now to learn more about these emerging trends at ICTforAg 2018 on June 14 in Washington, DC.