[FAO NEWS RELEASE - www.fao.org] Contact FAO Media Relations Office (+39) 06 570 53625 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> FAO and Korea Telecom team up to advance digital agricultural innovation Partnership to focus on digital technologies for agrifood and engaging youth in smart farming and agribusiness 12 June 2019, Rome - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Korea Telecom (KT) today agreed to work together to create more opportunities for youth to engage in smart farming and other forms of agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship. The agreement was signed by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and KT Chief Executive Officer Chang-Gyu Hwang at a ceremony on the side-lines of FAO's inaugural International Seminar on Digital Agriculture Transformation<http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/digital-agriculture-transformation/en/>. The two-day event brings together several hundred participants, including government ministers, representatives of civil society and the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other industry leaders. Through their partnership, FAO and KT aim to promote the use of technologies and innovations in development processes and value chains linked to agribusiness management and digital agriculture, and foster overall digital innovation and youth entrepreneurship in agrifood. In particular, they will focus on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for youth practicing smart farming, which entails the use of innovative technologies to produce more and quality food and other agricultural products, such as fuel, fibre, textiles, seeds or feed. As part of the agreement, FAO and KT will organize an annual Innovation Challenge/Hackathon to harness the use of digital technologies for sustainable agriculture development and to give young agripreneurs an opportunity to explore and test new, high-potential ideas for smart agriculture. FAO and KT will also host an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Bootcamp or masterclass offering youth educational and entrepreneurial programmes and activities in agribusiness and technological innovation. KT is providing new technologies and services based on 5G's ultra-high speed, ultra-low latency, and hyper connectivity, thereby creating socio-economic value for the public. FAO assists its member countries in unlocking the potential of digital innovation to drive socio-economic growth, ensure food and nutrition security, alleviate poverty and improve resilience to climate change. For example, FAO and its partners are working in nine pilot countries in Africa, Asia and Central America to bring international, national and local partners together to develop and implement capacity development plans for digital agriculture. FAO is also supporting governments to develop strategies that foster a sustainable and inclusive ecosystem of developing digital agriculture through cooperation with small-scale enterprises, cooperatives and local organizations to ensure smallholder farmers benefit from the development of digital technologies economically, socially and environmentally. | read this story online<http://www.fao.org/news/archive/news-by-date/2019/en/> | [2019/85en] Journalists & editors: For video, photos, audio clips contact: (+39) 06 570 53625 or [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. Online tools: Footage download via FAO Media Vault<http://tv.fao.org/> Photos via the FAOnews Flickr account<http://www.flickr.com/photos/faonews> FAO's online newsroom<http://www.fao.org/news/newsroom-home/en/> RSS feed<http://www.fao.org/news/rss-feed/en/> of FAO news releases Follow us on Twitter: @FAOnews<https://twitter.com/faonews/> | @grazianodasilva<https://twitter.com/grazianodasilva/> This news release was issued by the Media Office at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). To unsubscribe from this news service click the link below or send an email to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> with "signoff Media-G-Eng-L" as the only text in the message body. You can also manage your subscription online, here<https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa>. To receive news releases in plain text format rather than HTML, contact us. FAO | Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy | (+39) 06 570 53625 | www.fao.org<http://www.fao.org> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the Media-G-German-L list, click the following link: &*TICKET_URL(Media-G-German-L,SIGNOFF);