Britain's Prince Charles bemoans rural Internet 'deserts'

According to a recent item from AFP news, Prince Charles said that people living in rural areas had been left in the Internet's "slow lane", placing them at a "severe disadvantage" in the modern world.
He called for the public and private sector to come together to find a solution to the broadband gap.

He warned that the online "broadband deserts" would turn into "ghost communities" if struggling businesses in the countryside could not get high-speed Internet access. "The handicap this places on those rural businesses, schools, doctors' surgeries and local authorities, which inhabit these so-called 'broadband deserts', is immense.

He said the number of dairy farms had declined by 50 percent in the past decade, and if people were to stay on the land, "they need all the help they can get". "Denying them broadband, and effectively cutting them off from the Internet, will only be more likely to drive them off the hills and into the towns and cities."

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Advocating AgInfo communication and management

The Global Forum on Agricultural Research just published a short document on Advocacy to improve information sharing and exchange in agricultural research for development.

The advocacy agenda comprises:

• Increased and improved investment in ICM at the research Institute, research organization and research system level.
  
• Capacity development, especially skills in generating digital content, managing and disseminating it at the Institute and Research System level.
  
• Greater coherence and integration of agricultural information systems.
  
• Improved governance of information flows to ensure equitable access to agricultural related information globally