Worldwide, Agriculture is always deemed as the most powerful tool to end poverty and to provide job opportunities. Many research analyses have found that over 65% of poor working adults in rural areas derive their livelihoods from agriculture, and predict that it has a big potential for enhancing economic growth.
However, Agriculture is facing globally and especially in the Arab and African regions too many Constraint issues and challenges such as climate change, water crises and shortages with a heavy negative impact on food safety & security in many countries (20,7% of the Arab region population is suffering from severe food shortage) in spite of their efforts of many enablers to achieve the sustainable agricultural development.
As ICT is known as a strategic tool for socio-economic development all over the world, the Arab ICT Organization has launched the ISAF initiative: “Interregional Smart agriculture Forum”. ISAF is a multi-stakeholder annually event, aiming to provide a platform for an interregional dialogue about the new technology trends and Smart Agriculture. It gathers high-level personalities from the two regions with common visions to come up with orientations to design the sustainable future of the Agricultural sector within the two regions through the usage of ICT. Thus, to participate in the setting up of effective mechanisms to develop a regional agenda for Smart Agriculture.
Many activities are scheduled: International exhibition and conference, B2B meetings, workshops, and awards. the first edition of ISAF was held in 2018 and was concluded by a declaration to support the adoption of Smart Agriculture in the two regions to increase productivity and achieve food security while preserving natural resources and the environment.

http://www.isaf-forum.com/

• Africa

• Youth
• Women
• Remote and rural communities
• Farmers in the Arab and African regions and all interested parties

As food security & Safety is a common and shared concern, this project/initiative is replicable everywhere and anytime. It is about developing Smart Agriculture systems by using the technology and their applications in agriculture and including them through the national/regional plans in accordance with the financial and human capabilities of every country or any interested party.

Sustainability is one of the aims and conditions of this project. It has as slogan “Towards Sustainable Interregional Agricultural Development by introducing New Technology trends”. This goal of sustainability will be achieved through many actions as: - Working in collaboration with the Arab and African countries to create societies capable of using the new technological trends to achieve agricultural integration based on creativity and technological innovation and contribute to food security and economic growth. – Establishing regional and international partnerships between countries and regions producing ICT applications for agriculture, and finding mechanisms for financing smart agriculture projects and initiatives that involve small farmers and startups. – Launching innovative projects using the technology in general and the satellite technologies for precision farming. - Establishing institutional frameworks and strategies in line with technological developments to promote the use of smart agriculture as a concept to boost agriculture sustainability and development.

This project is a part of the international consensus aimed at eradicating hunger (Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030), combating poverty (Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030), and preserving the environment and natural resources by coordinating efforts in using information and communication technologies in agriculture to achieve integrated and sustainable solutions for the agricultural sector. Hence, through the multiple actions launched within the scope of this project AICTO is willing to participate with all stakeholders in the two regions to create a common vision and to strengthen their actions towards achieving the food and water safety. It is aiming to involve as much as possible of stakeholders from the two regions and to build relationships with international actors in the field. By that, AICTO is spreading WSIS values while fostering them.