Planning Iran's agricultural Information System

Maziar Amirhosseini and colleagues recently shared recent activities and plans concerning Iran’s agricultural information system.

Building on several years of activities in scientific and technical information, the ‘Ministry of Jihad-e-agriculture’ think tank (MJTT) was established in January 2006 as a virtual organization network in the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture. This network has various nodes in different centers and institutions of the Ministry. Its main mission is to establish the ‘agricultural information system of Iran’ (AISI) project.

With knowledge management as the base of its activities, the work group planning the project:

• considered information flows in the agricultural section in Iran
• analyzed fundamental phenomena, data, information, knowledge and wisdom cycle in the Ministry of Jihad-e-agriculture
• identified information producers and users in the agricultural sector in Iran
• considered implicit and explicit knowledge in agriculture sector in Iran
• identified organizational factors of knowledge management in the Ministry of Jihad-e-agriculture
• compiled theoretical aspects of AISI in ontological and epistemological methods in the base of ancient Iranian philosophy, Islamic philosophy and western philosophy.

The lead up to the think tank involved a work group of information professionals who produced a brief plan of the national agricultural information system in Iran in July 2005. Later that year and in 2006, the group prepared a number of other key documents, including:

November 2005: National Agricultural Information System in Iran (NAISI) by Askar Norozi-Ghazi, Maziar Amirhosseini, Kayvan Kousha, and Mehdi Ameri. Described the history of national information systems in Iran, problem pathology of agricultural information system in Ministry of Jihad-e-agriculture in the field of scientific information system, statistical data, GIS, MIS, IT and agricultural information. Description of the goals, basic questions, problems of establishment of NAISI, as well as recommendation of the executed structure of (NAISI) in Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture.

December 2005: National agricultural scientific information system (NASIS) in the Organization of agricultural research & education in Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture by Maziar Amirhosseini. Subtitled ‘Vefagh’ (Unity), because the author intended to describe the importance of the unity in NASIS, explains the necessity, goals, problems and questions on agricultural scientific information systems. Recommends 19 important micro projects to be implemented.

January 2006: National Agricultural Knowledge Management in Iran (NAKMI) by Maziar Amirhosseini and Askar Norozi-Ghazi. Describes the goals, basic questions and problems of establishing the NAKMI. Steps to be taken in the national agricultural knowledge management architecture are exploration of agricultural taxonomy which includes the base of agricultural knowledge, communication protocols, knowledge users and national and universal agricultural knowledge.

The project is led by Amir Abbas Moazzen, Minister’s advisor in national plans and projects and Secretary of the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture Think Tank (MJTT), www.ajt.ir. Project cooperators are Maziar Amirhosseini and Askar Norozi-Ghazi

Tags: agricultural information iran