Agricultural extension and advisory services worldwide

A new website from IFPRI and partners ...

It provides empirical data on the human and financial resources of agricultural extension and advisory systems worldwide, as well as other important information on:

• primary extension service providers in each country (e.g. public, private and/or non-governmental);
• primary target groups (e.g. large, medium, and/or small-scale farmers, including rural women) for each extension organization;
• etc

Visit the web site

Check how your extension services are described!

The KM impact challenge - last chance to contribute your story

The USAID-supported 'Knowledge Management Impact Challenge" is looking for stories that illustrate ways to "effectively measure and demonstrate the results of our investments in knowledge and learning." The deadline to submit is less than a week away.

There are already several stimulating stories submitted from the agriculture sector (see them all):

Connecting Arid Lands Communities With Knowledge - shares how ALIN in Kanya assesses the work of its rural knowledge centers.

Agricultural Value chain development - describes how KIVA in Uganda assesses the impacts of its short messaging service linking farmers to markets.

Documenting the documentation processes - from ILEIA explains ways to monitor and asses the participation of rural communities in describing and sharing their own knowledge.

Check out these and other stories and submit yours!

Internet for agriculture - online tutorial

Check out Intute's 'Internet for Agriculture' online tutorial to help university students develop their Internet research skills.

This tutorial is part of a larger Virtual Training Suite - a set of free Internet tutorials to help students develop Internet research skills.

Others in the series include veterinary medicine, food safety ans plant sciences.

China Agricultural Libraries Society Conference Report

The 2010 Annual Conference of Chinese Agricultural Libraries Society (CALS) on “Innovation and Development of Digital Libraries” was held in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province Oct. 25-27, 2010. The conference was organized by CALS together with other partners including Jiangxi Agricultural University, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Information Institute (AII) of CAAS. Over 80 agricultural librarians and information specialists from more than 20 agriculture-related institutions attended the conference.

On the theme of digital library innovation and development, a number of presentations were given at the meeting, including “International Agricultural Information Exchange and Sharing”, “Library Service Innovation in the Environment of New Technologies”, “Digital Library Service Innovation and Development in the Library of Beijing Academy of Agricultural Sciences”, “Digital Information Resources Publicity in Agricultural University Libraries”, and “Development Strategy and Service Mode in Agricultural Digital Libraries”. Also, the CIARD (Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development) initiative and CIARD RING were introduced to the participants. Discussions were conducted on topics of significance for international agricultural information exchange and sharing, and how to promote and contribute to an international agricultural information sharing system.

The IAALD China Chapter distributed a Chinese version of new IAALD promotional pamphlets. As a result, participants had a clearer understanding of the IAALD mission, benefits of IAALD membership, and how to join the Association. A number of library representatives showed interest in IAALD activities. The IAALD China Chapter plans to follow-up by distributing IAALD membership forms to the related libraries to facilitate new memberships.

During the conference, participants extensively exchanged research findings, working experiences, and ideas in digital library construction and services and network information sharing. We believe the conference resulted in promoting the development of agricultural library services in China in today’s rapid changing information environment.

by Xianxue Meng, President, IAALD China Chapter

Mobilizing the potential of rural and agricultural extension

This paper presents an overview of current opportunities and challenges facing efforts to increase the impact of rural and agricultural extension. The starting point for this analysis is in recognition that the days when agricultural extension was synonymous with the work of public sector agencies are over.

The ‘extension services’ described here may just as likely consist of an input vendor advising a farmer about what seed to plant, a television station broadcasting a weather forecast, a supermarket advising traders about what standards are required for the vegetables they purchase or a farmer organization lobbying for research that reflects the demands of its members for new technologies.

Mobilizing the potential of extension is about enhancing this broad and complex flow of information and advice in the agrifood sector.

The paper presents the position of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) on where agricultural extension stands today and where it needs to go in the future.

Download the report

Addis Ababa knowledge fair theme of New Agriculturist special issue

In October 2010, Addis Ababa hosted the first 'AgKnowledge Africa' share fair to showcase how agricultural information and knowledge is created, shared and communicated across the continent.

The January 2011 issue of New Agriculturist highlights stories from the event:

• Shujaaz FM - inspiring Kenya's young entrepreneurs
• An ALIN approach to learning
• ICTs improve access to livestock markets
• Sharing on air - Malawi's farming forum
• Towards an African commons of agricultural research
• Learning from sharing knowledge - TECA exchange group in Uganda
• African science speaks many languages

ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation

Ehud Gelb reports on the fifth year of the free, public domain e-Book: "ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of Technological Innovation":

During 2010 our book was accessed 38% more times than in 2009 (311287 vs. 225168).
(You may recall that during all of our first year the book was accessed a total of only 38927 times.....).

The e-Book is geared to provide insights to ICT developers and decision makers - assisting to avoid repeating past non optimal decisions. Hopefully this goal was attained by the 93 countries which averaged more than 10 accesses a month.

This opportunity to share the results with you and others will hopefully elicit ideas, comments, updates and maybe even new chapters for 2011. A detailed summary presentation of the e-Book's five year results is planned for the EFITA 2011 Conference in Prague.

Visit the book: http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/gelb-main.html