Call for ICT use in agricultural research

A recent news item reports from the Hyderabad workshop on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) organised by ICRISAT, GFAR and FAOGlobal Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and FAO.

The article highlights that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has immense potential in empowering farming communications and it should be put to greater use by the agricultural research and extension institutions, as said by Dave Hoisington, Deputy Director-General (Research) of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Hoisington pointed out that politicians were able to effectively use new technologies including ICT and the agricultural scientists must take a cue from them. “Unfortunately, till now ICT has not been given the due importance it deserves, and this has to be corrected to achieve more positive results,’’ he added.

ICRISAT Director-General William D Dar highlighted the importance of information in agriculture, and encouraged the workshop to come up with fresh and innovative ideas that could be the mainstream in the new paradigm of international agricultural research.

Ajit Maru, GFAR, defined the theme of the consultations and opined that ICT should be accorded prominence by treating it as frontier technology on a par with biotechnology and nanotechnology.“Once this is done, it should be able to attract more investments to take on new and challenging tasks of improving the livelihoods of resource-poor small holders and producers,’’ he said.

Read the article.

ICRISAT adopts green open access mandate for its scientific publications

The Business Standard reports that ICRISAT "has formally launched an open access (OA) system for its scientific publications."

According to William Dar, ICRISAT Director General: "Our Institute’s Green OA Mandate is in keeping with our guiding principle of developing international public goods, and it will further demonstrate the public value, and social and economic relevance of Icrisat’s research."

ICRISAT e-library services for agriculture in semi-arid tropics

The ICRISAT Library has developed a web-enabled e-library that hosts and links to the digital library resources on agriculture in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). Scientists inside ICRISAT use their desktops to visit this 'SAT e-library', navigating to reach the right information and download the selected items for their use.

These e-library resources are now open to partners and others through the website http://elibrary.icrisat.org.

The SAT elibrary offers access to resources developed by ICRISAT Library, but also to those relevant resources available on the internet, including:

1. SATSource Online bibliographical databases: The in-house bibliographical database holds 71,000 records on ICRISAT's crops especially information on disciplines, techniques, and methodologies useful to Global Themes (a) Biotechnology, (b) Crop improvement, (c) Agroecosystems, (d) markets, policy and impacts;

2. Serials Database - Union Catalog of serials in 15 CGIAR centers;

3. CGVLibrary - The CGIAR Virtual Library provides access to more than 160 quality resources on agricultural research, including electronic journals, databases on the Internet, in addition to the on-line libraries of the CGIAR.

4. SAT Electronic Library News - A monthly electronic Newsletter brought out by the Library to communicate research and research related information to the agricultural research community. Besides a section of current research literature on different crops, it also includes New Accessions in the ICRISAT Library, Forthcoming Conferences, Open Access articles, etc.

5. Google Search Tips - Online tutorial that helps users conduct effective searches in Google

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