Putting public AgInfo to use requires repackaging, transformation, and innovative partnerships

Accra, 17 July 2009: In a video interview with FARA, IAALD president Peter Ballantyne reflects on some discussions at the IAALD Africa conference in Accra.

Asked for a 'take home' message, he referred to a discussion on mobile agriculture and market information systems where speakers from private enterprises referred to the difficulties they have to find the essential information and content their customers will pay for. Their remarks suggest that public content creators and providers need to question their assumptions, particularly the notion that they have 'the' valuable content that others need to reach farmers.

For the private companies to "really put this [public] information to use, they have to repackage it, re-create it, start from scratch ... so are we in fact sitting on all those huge mountains of valuable information; do we have to pay much more attention to the re-use, repackaging, the transformation, really innovative ways of working in partnership with these private organizations."


He was interviewed by Francois Stepman of FARA

More FARA video interviews