CABI and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) have landed a prestigious $250,000 Inspire 2018 Scale Up award for their ground-breaking 'Seeing is Believing' project which helps optimise farmers' agronomic decision-making.
10 October 2018 - CABI and partners the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) have landed a prestigious $250,000 Inspire 2018 Scale Up award for their ground-breaking ‘Seeing is Believing’ project which uses farmers’ own smartphone photographs to help them optimize their agronomic decision-making.
The prize, which was won as part of CGIAR's Platform for Big Data in Agriculture 2018 Inspire Challenge awards, was presented during the Platform's second annual congress - Decoding the Data Ecosystem - which was recently held in Nairobi, Kenya. It follows an original Inspire Challenge award of $100,000 given in 2017 to develop the latest prize-winning concept further.
The Inspire Challenge encourages the use of big data approaches to advance agricultural research and development. CABI and IFPRI's innovative entry impressed judges (which included representatives from USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) for showing real potential for developmental impact - having mobilized underused or misused data as well as showing the potential to develop meaningful partnerships with CGIAR and other sector members.