AIW - an important platform for professional exchange

In this video, Johannes Keizer, Head of the Editorial Board of IAALD's journal Agricultural Information Worldwide (AIW) emphasizes the need for a strong platform for professional information exchange in the area of agricultural research and innovation.

Survey: Use of technology and semantics in open access in agriculture

You are invited to participate in a short survey (less then 10 minutes) on the Use of Technology and Semantics in Open Access in Agriculture and Related Sciences. This survey is designed to get a detailed overview of the state of the art of Open Access (OA) and Open Archives Initiative (OAI) within the Agriculture and Related Sciences Research Community. Therefore the characteristics of the main institutions, networks and associations taking a leader role in the promotion of OA and OAI in Agriculture and Related Sciences will be analyzed.

The survey will be open until the end of January 2010. The results of the survey will be made available online in the CIARD Ring to give all participants the opportunity to take a look at and comment the results. To be able to have access to the results it would be recommended to register to the CIARD Ring. The conclusions drawn will be presented at the IAALD XIIIth World Congress on 26-29 April 2010, Montpellier, France.

Your assistance in providing information about Open Access in Agriculture and Related Sciences is much appreciated. We look forward to your cooperation!

Knowledge sharing in changing agricultural organizations

The KM4Dev workshop in Brussels (6-8 October 2009) includes a thematic 'AgHuddle' for people interested in knowledge sharing (KS) and knowledge management (KM) in the agriculture sector.

The first area of discussion will be on KS and KM in changing organizations:

All across the agricultural sector, knowledge, learning and innovation are emerging as key points where organizations need to invest and make a difference. Capturing, mobilizing, and sharing different types of knowledge and information - and putting them to good use - has moved up organizational agendas.

This attracts attention from different domains - managers, researchers, IT, web, communication, intranet people, publishing, libraries, learning, and KS/KM.

We can see increased attention to strategies in this area; many experiments with different social media and toolkits; continuing efforts to build and sustain different types of learning networks and sharing communities; more attention to knowledge 'systems' and 'products' and their presentation/visualization across different platforms; diverse ways to organize and deliver and report on face to face meetings; an interest in 'open' knowledge and its accessibility; and increasing conversations among the KS/KM champions across organizations.

Some of the questions we will discuss are:

• How do we best work with multiple knowledge producers, uses, users, communities and types of knowledge?
• How do we work with multiple approaches and tools, and with content that is increasingly mobile and accessible across many increasingly mobile platforms and devices?
• How do we with partners who can extend the reach of the knowledge?
• How do we track and demonstrate progress and impact of KS/KM activities, making the case that these approaches and tools are not 'add ons' - that they can make any activity more efficient and effective. Are there ways we can demonstrate this?

We plan to document and share our discussions across the web - and on this blog: Share your ideas and experiences by commenting on this blog.

See also the second area of discussion: 'KS and KM enabling processes of rural change.'

Chile y Ecuador firman convenio de cooperación espacial en agro

Adital - El Centro de Información de Recursos Naturales (CIREN) del Chile firmó un convenio con el Sistema de Información Geográfica y Agropecuaria (SIGAGRO), de Ecuador, para actualizar información cartográfica a diferentes escalas y niveles de resolución.

Según el director ejecutivo del CIREN, Rodrigo Álvarez Seguel, "este acuerdo persigue inventariar recursos como suelo, clima, agua, vegetación, infraestructura básica y de apoyo a la producción; producir información temática como mapas de amenazas naturales, erosión, gestión de riesgos, inundaciones, suelos, uso actual y cobertura vegetal entre otros a diferentes escalas. La mirada general busca mejorar la explotación sustentable de los recursos y promover conservación y preservación de los mismos".

Hemispheric agricultural information service celebrates tenth anniversary

Agricultural information specialists from the hemisphere to meet in Costa Rica

The Agricultural Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC), which operates a mega database comprising more than 2 million entries, brings together some 300 information specialists in a virtual community and receives 25 thousand hits on its Website every day, will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year.

SIDALC is an international agricultural, livestock, forestry and environmental information service which enables institutions in 20 countries of the hemisphere to share information services and provide access to their repositories of knowledge for others outside the region.

The Service, administered by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and coordinated by the Orton Commemorative Library, operates the AGRI2000 mega database, which contains specialized collections on agriculture and related sciences from 162 information centers throughout the hemisphere and provides access to other internationally renowned libraries.

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Knowledge sharing in agriculture and development

In October 2009, the KM4Dev community organizes its next meeting in Brussels...

One of the 'huddles' will be on knowledge sharing (and knowledge management) in agriculture.

Sign up to the KM4Dev community of practice if you work with KS or KM in international development - and with an agriculture/rural focus.

México: cuenta SLP con sistema de monitoreo agroclimático

El gobierno estatal informó que ante la temporada de lluvias, dispone de una red de monitoreo agroclimático que permite alertar de eventuales contingencias por cambio de temporal, a fin de tomar las medidas correspondientes.

El mecanismo permite, además de proteger siembras y ganado de eventuales fenómenos meteorológicos, contar con información a fin de decidir qué y cuándo es más conveniente sembrar, de acuerdo con los pronósticos de las temporadas.

Adicionalmente, con este sistema es posible apoyar las decisiones relacionadas con la seguridad alimentaria nacional, por parte de las dependencias e instancias del sector agropecuario, con la estimación de las cosechas esperadas.

Leer artículo completo

Visite también:

• Red Nacional de Estaciones Estatales Agroclimatológicas
• Laboratorio Nacional del Modelaje y Sensores Remotos
  

Communication and climate change

This week CTA is holding its annual seminar in Burkina Faso.

It will identify ways of improving access to climate change information in ACP countries ...

Check out the seminar blog for updates.

Feria de difusión de conocimientos para el desarrollo agrícola: convocatoria de propuestas

Biodiversity International, el programa ICT-KM del GCIAI, la FAO, el FIDA y el PMA organizan conjuntamente una actividad de tres días de duración titulada "Feria de difusión de conocimientos para el desarrollo agrícola y la seguridad alimentaria", que se llevará a cabo del 20 al 22 de enero de 2009.

El objetivo de esta actividad es exponer ejemplos de buenas prácticas de difusión de conocimientos en el ámbito del desarrollo agrícola y la seguridad alimentaria.

Sírvase redactar un resumen de su proyecto o iniciativa. Indique su mejor solución para:

• trabajar en entornos geográficamente descentralizados
• recoger y difundir conocimientos cuestiones e ideas locales (autóctonos)
• tratar las cuestiones culturales y de género
• conservar los conocimientos cuando se retiran los trabajadores
• establecer relaciones o redes
• facilitar prácticas de colaboración
• comunicar internamente

El plazo para presentar las propuestas termina el 15 de octubre de 2008.

Si desea más información sobre la feria, visite el sitio: www.sharefair.net.

Foire du partage des savoirs pour le développement agricole : appel de propositions

Bioversity International, programme du GCRAI ayant trait aux technologies de l’information et de la communication ainsi qu’au partage des savoirs (ITC-KM), la FAO, le FIDA et le PAM organisent une manifestation de trois jours intitulée « Foire du partage des savoirs pour le développement agricole et la sécurité alimentaire » qui se tiendra du 20 au 22 janvier 2009.

Le but de cette manifestation est de présenter des exemples de bonnes pratiques de partage des connaissances dans les domaines du développement agricole et de la sécurité alimentaire.

Rédigez un court résumé de votre projet/initiative. Comment effectivement:

• travaillez-vous dans des environnements géographiquement décentralisés?
• réussissez-vous à saisir et à partager les connaissances, les problèmes et les idées locales (autochtones)?
• traitez-vous des questions culturelles et des questions touchant à la parité hommes-femmes?
• conservez-vous les connaissances après le départ des employés?
• établissez-vous des relations ou des réseaux?
• facilitez-vous des méthodes de collaboration?
• assurez-vous la communication interne

La date de clôture des appels de propositions est fixée au 15 octobre 2008.

Pour en savoir plus www.sharefair.net.

Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development: Call for Proposals

Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP are jointly organizing a 3-day event entitled "Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development and Food Security" on January 20 - 22, 2009.

The purpose of the event is to showcase examples of good knowledge sharing practices in the field of agricultural development and food security.

Please write a short story about your project/initiative. How do you effectively:

• Work in geographically distributed environments?
• Capture and share local (indigenous) knowledge, issues and ideas?
• Deal with culture and gender issues?
• Retain knowledge when workers leave?
• Build relationships or networks?
• Facilitate collaborative practices?
• Communicate internally?

Call for submission closes on 15 October 2008.

For further information, please visit www.sharefair.net/.

Rural innovation systems 'tourist guide'

The UNU LINK network just released a new document - a Tourist Guide to Systems Studies of Rural Innovation.

The report aims to provide an overview of the global groups of researchers — and to a lesser extent practitioners — working with systems perspectives on rural innovation. It identifies the main themes that are emerging from this area of scholarship and provides an annotated bibliography of recent writing on these themes.

Among the topics covered:

• Social Learning and Communication
• Local Innovation Processes
• Innovation Systems
• Institutional Learning and Change
• Market Systems and Innovation
• Science and Society

NewsforDev: CTA aggregator helps track newsfeeds and more

CTA recently announced a new service for development practitioners. NewsforDev employs RSS and e-mail news technology to bring together knowledge and information for development practitioners. It cleverly tracks 600 plus newsfeed to create a number of thematic dossiers on topics like:

• ACP-EU relations;
  
• Agriculture;
  
• Biodiversity;
  
• Biofuels;
  
• CTA;
  
• Climate change;
  
• Development;
  
• ICTs;
  
• Science and technology;
  
• Trade

Each dossier presents recent content from a number of sources; A nice featire is that you can also subscribe to feeds and updates on each dossier or feed.

A very nice example of the way that information specialists can 'mash' together existing information services in an accessible format....

ICT for rural livelihoods 'knowledge map'

Between 2006 and 2007, ODI and partners were commissioned by the World Bank Information for Development Program (infoDev) to produce a Knowledge Map of ICTs and rural livelihoods.

Written up in wiki format, the Map is designed to answer the following questions: How can the full range of information and communication technologies (ICTs), appropriately adapted, help to improve the livelihoods of poor individuals, families and communities in rural areas and increase their income opportunities, thereby improving their chances of escaping from persistent poverty? What do we know already, both from research and from experience in the field, and what do donor staff and their country counterparts most urgently need to know about these issues? How should we think about the role of ICT in enhancing the livelihoods of the rural poor? What elements most urgently require further research and analysis in order to lay the basis for informed policy and investment by donors, governments and others?

The wiki gives access to several country and project case studies and it summarises where we are with regard to several key topics:

• Enabling Environment - national policies, laws, physical infrastructure (roads, electricity, etc), and other infrastructure (access to education, access to banks, etc) that need to be in place for people to be able to use ICTs to their advantage.
  
  
• Evaluation - how we can evaluate the impact of ICTs on rural livelihoods.
  
  
• Partnerships - how partnerships can be used in the most appropriate and effective way in the area of ICTs-for-rural-livelihoods.
  
  
• Sustainability - how ICTs-for-rural-livelihood projects and programmes can be set up in ways that continue to support livelihoods strategies in the longer term.
  
  
• Scalability - how successful ICT for rural livelihood projects or programmes can be scaled up in the same context, or adopted in other contexts in order to create the same positive effects.
  
  
• Local Innovation - how local innovation can be encouraged in the area of ICTs-for-rural-livelihoods, including how to foster the use of local content and locally appropriate technologies.

It provides recommendations for five groups: international donors, donor staff in-country, policymakers, private sector actors, and CSOs and other intermediaries to the rural poor.

It provides access to a large bibliography of recent literature, useful web portals and sites, and key organisations.

Information and Agricultural Progress Blog

Under the name 'Information and Agricultural Progress', Ajit Maru's new blog gives his opinions on the "state of information and knowledge access to agricultural communities and its use."

His first postings look at 'infusing new information and knowledge in agricultural systems' and examine topics like ICTs and agricultural extension, research management information, research data, and scientific and technical information.

Blogging web 2.0 and KM for agriculture and rural development

Sometimes you find an excellent new blog on aginfo and related issues and wonder how it didn't come across your radar before... Anyway, Web Tastings is by IFPRI's Pete Shelton and Stephan Dohrn - writing in their personal capacities. The idea is to "reflect on the usefulness and impact of the social web and its tools and approaches on development cooperation."

A recent post that caught the eye looks at measuring impact on the web - and some experiences from IFPRI.

En Chile, comienza ciclo 2008 de capacitación IMARK

Profesionales y funcionarios de las Unidades de Información, ligadas al sector silvoagropecuario de Chile, tendrán la oportunidad de aprender procesos, tecnologías para la creación, manejo y difusión de información digital.

La Fundación para la Innovación Agraria de Chile (FIA) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), dieron inicio oficial al nuevo ciclo de capacitaciones para el manejo de documentos electrónicos en Bibliotecas Digitales –orientadas al sector silvoagropecuario-, el cual ofrece, por primera vez, una versión para la Región Metropolitana.

El objetivo de los Talleres de Capacitación en Gestión de Información Agraria:, es capacitar a los funcionarios a cargo de Unidades de Información que formen parte de la RedAgroChile y bibliotecas públicas de la Región Metropolitana.

Las clases se emplean una serie de módulos disponibles mediante el Repertorio de Recursos para la Gestión de Información Agraria (IMARK, por sus siglas en inglés), que FAO se encuentra desarrollando con asociados y especialistas de todo el mundo. El taller en Santiago, combina los módulos en 'Gestión de Documentos Electrónicos' y 'Digitalización y Bibliotecas Digitales'.

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Accessing agricultural research information for development

The 2nd Expert Consultation on International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology (IISAST) was held on 23 – 24 September 2007 in FAO, Rome, and organized by seven organizations CGIAR, CTA, DFID (UK), FAO, GFAR, IAALD, and MAE (France).

In January 2008, IAALD joined the other partners at the subsequent planning meeting of the initiative to examine ways forward. The partners agreed that a 'manifesto' would be highly beneficial for the initiative, in terms of laying out the substantive agenda that was being addressed. This could act as a common declaration at a global level on collaboration and consistency between various organizations building, supporting, and maintaining information systems in agricultural research for development.

After considerable discussion, it was also agreed that the initiative should henceforward be known as: 'Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development' – CIARD rather than IISAST. The manifesto is being drafted and will be launched later this year.

Download the report of the consultation (pdf); see more consultations organized by FAO.

Tags: agricultural information research fao

Surveying information management and ICT use in LAC agricultural research

IICA’s Medium Term Plan establishes as one of the priority actions of the Area of Technology and Innovation, the promotion of information and knowledge management to support technology innovation processes. Similarly, the 2006-2008 Plan of Action of the Forum for the Americas on Agricultural Research and Technology Development (FORAGRO) includes guidelines for enhancing the capacity to manage agricultural technological information.

To provide some of the background information needed to achieve those objectives, IICA decided to conduct a survey of the agricultural science and technology institutions that are members of FORAGRO.

Targeted at national agricultural research institutes or their equivalent, the survey was designed to ascertain their current practices, capabilities and opinions regarding information management (IM) and information and communication technologies (ICT) related to their technical functions.

This document is not intended to provide an exhaustive analysis of the orientation of the institutions’ IM resources and policies, but rather an initial assessment of how these Latin American and Caribbean institutions manage technical information and harness ICT. As well as providing an overview of IM and the use of ICT in the institutions concerned, the aim is to help generate a shared vision of the importance and usefulness of IM and ICT, and to identify criteria for preparing joint hemispheric strategies to enhance IM capabilities within the regional research system.

Tags: agricultural information latin america iica

Uso y expectativas de la gestión de información técnica y las TIC en las instituciones de investigación agropecuaria de ALC

El Plan de Mediano Plazo del IICA establece para la Dirección de Liderazgo Técnico y Gestión del Conocimiento en el Área de Tecnología e Innovación como acción prioritaria la promoción de la gestión de información y el conocimiento en apoyo a los procesos de innovación tecnológica. Paralelamente, el Foro de las Américas para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Tecnológico Agropecuario (FORAGRO), tiene dentro de su Plan de Acción 2006-2008 la línea de acción 5 en donde se establecen lineamientos con respecto al fortalecimiento de las capacidades de gestión de información tecnológica agropecuaria.

Con el fin de aportar elementos para cumplir con estos objetivos, el IICA se propuso hacer un sondeo en las instituciones vinculadas a la ciencia y tecnología agropecuaria reunidas en FORAGRO, delimitándolo a los Institutos de Investigación Agropecuaria y equivalentes en los países, sobre el concepto, capacidades, uso y expectativas de la gestión de información (GI) y las tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC) relacionadas con sus funciones técnicas.

Este trabajo no pretende hacer un análisis exhaustivo de cómo estas instituciones han orientado sus recursos y políticas en esta materia, sino ser un diagnóstico inicial que caracterice de modo general cómo las instituciones mencionadas de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) están gestionando la información técnica y cómo están aprovechando las TIC. Una caracterización general de este tipo permitirá ayudar a generar una visión compartida con respecto a la importancia y aplicación de GI y las TIC, e identificar elementos para elaborar estrategias hemisféricas conjuntas para el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de GI en el sistema de investigación regional.

Tags: agricultural information latin america iica