Our 2015 Photo Story

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Let’s do this story!

We’ve come to the end of another year! This time around we had some ups and downs. And we think it best to give you the highlights of our blog, our web series and our colleagues, as we wish you and yours all the best for the season and happy and prosperous New year!

Do ensure this photo story!

We started the year with our usual tech topics such as robotic farming, renewable energies and bringing old techniques back into modern production. It truly is astonishing what exists out there in the world both simple and complex technologies and sciences which make agriculture interesting to us youth. But behind all of this are people…young people!

Growing out TFF community – Photo courtesy Thought for Food

In came the Thought for Food Challenge and summit where we met some of the greatest and most enthusiastic young minds in food and agriculture today. The event was truly motivating having been introduced and are still in contact with finalist teams and other participants.

Tech4agri: the podcast that failed…but it will return!

Then came a bright shining light and complete failure….well it depends on how you look at it. Tech4agri launched its very own podcast. We got some great feedback from you, our followers but reality hit, in that we just could not keep it up. When delivering our stories we want great quality and interesting content. While the podcast was great we found it difficult to find the type of content we needed while simultaneously handling our other projects. It lasted three episodes but it’s not dead it will return!

Tech4agri Team

As an entrepreneur, failure is ever present. So Tech4agri regrouped and focused on what was needed to get its long planned web series off the ground! We finally got our team together! Meet our team again!

Agri journalists of Tech4agri

We started our work in  agri journalism and got great feedback with our mini documentary Agripeople! #Motivation

LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 25: The 2015 Online News Association Conference at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel on September 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Daniel Petty/for ONA)

Again we were #winners having earned a fellowship to the Online News Association conference for 2015 held in Los Angeles. We were humbled to be selected as one of the best early career young digital journalists for the event. #mindblown at all the tech we learned of that can be used for journalism!

Tech4agri: the web series Ep 5 – Pests vs Diseases vs You

What would you do if a pest or disease infested your crop and you stood to lose 40 – 50% of your investment and future profits?

This episode answers just this question with farmers who are seeking or receiving help to combat their pest/disease problem. We found out that climate change plays a clear role in the prevalence of the issue but is this the only reason?

Watch the episode to find out more!

A major part of this episode features the efforts of the Plantwise program-  a global programme led by CABI, which works to help farmers lose less of what they grow to plant health problems.

Working closely with national agricultural advisory services they establish and support sustainable networks of plant clinics, run by trained plant doctors, where farmers can find practical plant health advice.

 

Tech4agri: the web series Ep 2 – Real Business

It’s episode two of our web series! Please view and pass on to your colleagues.

This episode focuses on our colleagues in agribusiness, D’ Market Movers.  They have been around for above 5 – 6 years and stand as a leading example of a successful agribusiness.

The co founders made full use of the ICT services that were available to them. Over time they have evolved with an impressive product listing and other innovative strategies.

They give us the tips you need to succeed in your own endeavours!

Forward Onward Ahead – Tech4agri shines again

LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 25: The 2015 Online News Association Conference at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel on September 25, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Daniel Petty/for ONA)

We are edging closer and closer to our launch for tech4agri: the Web series!

We’re diligently working on getting this series up online by Nov 2nd. Hope you are following our progress via instagram, twitter and facebook. Due to our focus on the series, our blog has suffered. Fortunately this is a positive rather than a negative as there is no straight line to success.

You, our readers may be unaware but Tech4agri faces a large number of challenges in terms of limited resources, time management and plain old failed business ventures. Regardless, through perseverance we have made successes and we are happy to tell you about two of them:

Winner yet again!

We are happy to have experience the amazing event that was the Online News Association conference!

Years ago, one of the driving forces behind this US based organization, Ms. MJ Bear, foresaw the important role the digital media would play in the future of journalism and spearheaded a fellowship for early career digital journalists. Unfortunately MJ passed away, however her colleagues saw it fit to bring the fellowship into a reality.

This fellowship allows young journalists with exceptional projects and work experience to be sponsored to attend the conference. Tech4agri with our web series and past resume of work was fortunate to among the chosen few. Learn more of our project and that of the other fellows.

And we’re live!

Introducing Tech4agri on Vimeo! We have just launched our vimeo page.  Similar to Youtube it is a video sharing website however the difference lies in the quality production the creators upload.

The site is well known as an online space for documentaries, film makers and original or experiemntal production. Vimeo’s slogan, film with passion resonates with Tech4agri as we currently produce our web series.

With few resources we hope to make a big impact and certainly make a change. All of tech4agri’s work for the past four years have been done with passion.

Our web series will be launched at the end of october and placed here on our vimeo page. Until then see our best productions there, in particular our first 1 minute film: Baroman

A “Baroman” is a transporter within the local wholesale market of Trinidad. While filming an agribusiness owner for the webseries as he goes about his purchases in the market, we had the opportunity to observe a day in the life of a ‘Baroman’. Difficult, fast paced, but with sense of meaning as the market would be worse off without them. Enjoy.

Special thanks to all of you that viewed our precursor mini documentary Agripeople! Watch it again on vimeo

Be sure to also follow us on:

Twitter: @tech4agri       Instagram: tech4agri        Facebook: Technology4agri

Waste not want not: Reworking waste

Have you thought about what you will do with waste that is generated from running your operations? Sometimes the cost of production to bring one’s precious product or service into reality is quite high. It’s almost as if this cost causes physical pain, enough to wince sharply.

Many corporations have turned this around turning waste into by products or filtering this waste into another system entirely which results in greater profit. Did you know that cornflakes began as cooked wheat that had gone stale but was then toasted? Golden Ray a popular butter substitute for many Caribbean dishes is actually a by product of butter itself!

Recycling food waste has been around for quite some time but it is now a major trend in global innovation.

Science is the key.

Bio Bean is an award winning green energy company that has industrialised the process of recycling waste coffee grounds into advanced biofuels. This is a startling innovation! Think about it.

Coffee is the world’s most consumed drink.

Some believe they cannot even function without it. As a result the coffee market is huge for all sorts of products coming out of this one crop. Therefore the amount of remnant coffee grounds is staggering. Now this has all changed with bio bean; waste repursposed.