e-Agriculture at the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Conference

On 27 August, FAO facilitates an e-Agriculture panel at the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress. The panel will deliberate issues of ICT as enablers in various critical areas of development, as well as the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in support of e-Agriculture.

The session will be an interactive discussion with the audience, with the panel anchored by:

• Alexander Flor, Dean, Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, University of the Philippines Open University;
• Manish Pandey, Deputy Director, Katalyst-Swisscontact;
• Michael Riggs, Information Management Specialist, FAO Regional Office for Asia-Pacific;
• Roxanna Samii, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD);
• and Stephen Rudgard, FAO, as the moderator.

The panelists will share knowledge and experiences, and the audience encouraged to contribute on topics such as the use of mobile telephony use in rural areas, with particular reference to ameliorate global soaring food prices, and knowledge brokering services in support of agricultural development, including Communities of Practice and approaches to building capacity.

There will also be a reprise of the issues arising in this year’s PPP online forum and eIndia conference discussion session entitled "Making e-Agriculture Work through Public Private Partnership in Asia". Experience and lessons in Bangladesh (Katalyst) and West Africa (Tradenet) will be contributed.

Full details of the PPP online forum, and reviews of the two sessions organized by FAO, the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), OneWorld South Asia and Katalyst in the e-Agriculture track of India's largest ICT Event, eIndia 2008 in July 2008, can be found on www.e-agriculture.org