August 2004
News from the Regional Fora
Europe
Asia-Pacific
EuropeEARD-InfoSys+: achievements and future plans
The development phase of EARD-InfoSys+ the Information System on European Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) will end in September 2004. The system has been restructured completely in this phase and was launched in April 2004. The German Centre for Documentation and Information in Agriculture ZADI will continue to host EARD-InfoSys+ in the future. EARD-InfoSys+ is mapping the European ARD landscape and pioneers in displaying the relations between organisations, projects, funding, experts and events in European ARD. In addition EARD-InfoSys+ offers an e-mail Alert service and the use of an online groupware for project management. Latest features are the implementation of an advanced search and concise news & events listings. Furthermore the first country view on EARD-InfoSys+ has been implemented for GARDEN-InfoSys, the German partner of EARD-InfoSys+.
Close collaboration with other regional agricultural information systems has been established and will be expanded in the future. During the development phase of the new system consultations with GFAR assured that the system is adaptable to other regional or national agricultural research landscapes. Using Open Source Software products for the programming of the information system guaranties, that additional costs for software licensing will not arise for those countries or regions deciding to capitalise on the system. The system has been presented at various occasions on international conferences and has attracted attention from the international agricultural research community. Stakeholders of ARD and rural development are invited to contact EARD-InfoSys+ if technical support is needed.
In the frame of an ERA-ARD proposal (FP6 of the EU) EARD-InfoSys+ is expected to support ERA-ARD by the mapping of programs and provide ICM support for improved coordination of investments into ARD. The proposal will be submitted in October 2004.
Marlene Horstmann
GARDEN-InfoSys+
EuropeEFARD 2005
We are pleased to remind you of EFARD 2005 - the triennial meeting of the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development. EFARD 2005 will take place from 27-29 April 2005 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich and will be organised by the Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR).
The Mission of EFARD is to strengthen the contribution of European Agricultural Research for Development to poverty alleviation, food security and sustainable development in developing countries. EFARD conferences provide a platform for information exchange and development of joint activities to interested stakeholders in ARD, such as researchers, policy makers, NGO's, farmer organisations and others.
The title of the EFARD 2005 conference is: Agricultural Research for Development: European Responses to Changing Global Needs. The Conference will encompass the following themes:
1 Agricultural research for development in a globalised world economy
- Agricultural market integration, subsidies, and world trade,
- Agricultural research in Europe responding to the new member countries,
- Agricultural reorientation in countries in transition,
- Food security for developing and newly industrialised countries.
2 Agriculture and food as a challenge for developing countries
- Rural development and agriculture for poverty alleviation,
- Plant genetic resources and biotechnology,
- Improved food quality and safety,
- Land and water management for sustainable agriculture.
3 European experiences in agricultural research and development
- Experiences in fostering sustainable agriculture in the European Union,
- Swiss experiences in promoting sustainable agriculture,
- The strengthened role of agricultural research for international cooperation,
- Public private partnerships in agricultural research for development.
Inputs to the conference can be as presentations, posters, workshop proposals, booth exhibitions or as a side event. A large number of conference fellowships will be available for participants from developing countries and from countries in transition.
The deadline for submission of conference inputs (abstracts of oral and poster presentations or proposals for workshops and side events) as well as for applications for financial support is 30 September 2004.
You can find more information on the EFARD 2005 conference in the attached conference announcement. For registration and for submission of contributions, please use the online form on the conference website.
Download the brochure of EFARD 2005.
In case you have any questions do not hesitate to contact the conference secretariat:
Manfred Kaufmann
EFARD2005 Conference Manager
Swiss Centre for International Agriculture
Scheuchzerstrasse 7
CH- 8092 Zürich
Tel: +41 1 632 79 35
Fax: +41 1 632 15 89
Email:
Manfred Kaufmann
EFARD2005 Conference Manager
Asia-PacificTraining Workshop on Capacity Building for Developing National Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS) and AFITA 2004
The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), with the membership of 20 National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) from the Asia-Pacific region and several regional and international organizations, has been actively promoting ICM in ARD. Over the last few years, APAARI has organized several expert consultations dealing with the subject by bringing together diverse stakeholder groups on a common platform. The most recent expert consultation in December 2003 was the third organized by APAARI with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) as co-sponsor and it assessed the progress made by various NARS since the last such consultation in 2002; explored the existing opportunities for enhancing the role of ICM in ARD; and discussed potential improvements in the Asia-Pacific Agricultural Research Information System (APARIS), an APAARI initiative, by focusing on potential user-groups and their information needs. APARIS serves as a portal to information resources of member NARS and other regional and international ARD organizations. It also acts as an information link between NARS and the international ARD organizations. APAARI is committed to bridge digital divide by assisting NARS of developing countries to effectively use ICM in their common goal of providing food security and poverty reduction through agricultural development.
NARS of some countries of the region, including Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar and Timor-Leste are currently not members of APAARI and hence been unable to benefit from the above expert consultations that have helped several member NARS in developing frameworks of their National Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS). Vietnam has only recently become a member.
APAARI, in collaboration with GFAR, AIT, FAO-RAP, SDLEARN, UN-ESCAP, JIRCAS/NARO and AgriWatch, organized a training workshop on Capacity Building for Developing NAIS of Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Timor-Leste and Vietnam during 3-12 August 2004 at AIT Conference Center, AIT, Pathumthani, Thailand.
Workshop Objectives
The training Workshop had two specific objectives:
- Train appropriate officers in principles of ICM and in identifying essential components of their respective NAIS,
- Assist these officers in development of basic NARS web sites to disseminate NAIS keeping in view different user groups.
Workshop Participants
There were 9 training participants from the above 7 countries, representing the information divisions of their respective NARS. The training was facilitated by 14 Resource Speakers/Persons - from APAARI (4), FAO-RAP (1), AIT (2), JIRCAS/NARO (2), UN-ESCAP (2), SDLEARN (2) and AgriWatch (1).
Workshop Program
3 August (Day 1)
- Orientation, Country Status Presentations, and NAIS Framework.
4 August (Day 2)
- ICM Basics: information, provider, user, and technical aspects of ICM in ARD.
5 August (Day 3)
- Information Flow Models: information collection and processing,
- FAO Tools & Resources.
6 August (Day 4)
- ICM Implementation in ARD: essential components of a NAIS and basics of web site development and maintenance,
- Finalization of prototype NARS web sites to deliver NAIS.
7 August (Day 5)
- International and Regional Initiatives (SDLEARN, CABI, APAN, AgriWatch, etc.).
8 August (Day 6)
- Study tour to International ICT Expo.
9-12 August
- Participation in AFITA-WCCA 2004 in Bangkok to get an exposure to global, regional, and other national initiatives on ICM in ARD.
12-13 August
- Follow-up Action Plan for their regular upgrade and maintenance,
- Feedback Session and Departure.
Workshop Proceedings
The Workshop was designed, through use of generic frameworks, tools and techniques, to enable participants to analyze, understand and learn about information and communications management in organizations engaged in agriculture research for development, especially at the National level, through a participatory approach. The format of the training workshop was to have brief presentations followed by group and individual working sessions. A Workshop Manual including the presentations, guidelines for group and individual activities and background reading material was developed and made accessible through a simple, web based user interface as all participants had access to a networked computer and other peripheral equipment. All workshop material, including a large amount of background material, was included on a CD-ROM distributed to the participants. All the training material and outputs are also available on APAARI web site under the Training section. The following are the workshop proceedings in brief:
Day 1: Inauguration, Orientation, Country Status Presentations, and NAIS Framework.
There was a brief formal inauguration ceremony presided by Dr. Mario Tabucanon, Provost of AIT. Prof. Tabucanon congratulated APAARI for having developed a specific capacity building program to contribute in bridging the digital-divide in the Asia-Pacific region by assisting the participating countries in developing their NAIS. Mr. P. K. Saha, APAARI Liaison Officer delivered the vote of thanks and highlighted the benefits of APAARI membership. This was followed by introduction of the Workshop and its objectives by the facilitators of the Workshop, Dr. Sahdev Singh and Dr. Ajit Maru. The participants, during the first workshop session, presented their country reports. Those countries that had two participants had a joint report by the participants. The country reports and presentations arranged country wise are available on the Workshop CD-ROM.
In the Second Workshop Session, Dr. Ajit Maru presented an overview of developing Information Systems for Agricultural Research and Development. He put forward several frameworks related to information systems, NAIS and each component of it such as systems for managing scientific and technical information, research data, research management, extension and outreach information and for agricultural learning.
Day 2: Need Assessment and Clientele Identification in NAIS Framework.
On the 2nd Day of the Workshop, the participants were briefed on needs assessment of clients of NAIS. Through a group exercise, the participants in two groups, identified the clients of a NAIS, their needs and prioritized their clients list on the basis of services they, as a NAIS, could provide. This session was facilitated by both Dr. Sahdev Singh and Dr. Ajit Maru. Following this session, Dr. Maru made a brief presentation on Institutions, Structures and Processes that are needed for a NAIS. The participants, using the services they had identified for their NAIS as a base for discussion, identified the Institutions, Structures and Processes they would need to provide services in their NAIS.
Day 3: Information Flow Analysis for NAIS and FAO Information Tools and Resources.
The 3rd day included Dr. Maru and Dr. Singh explaining the technique of process and information flow mapping and analysis as a problem solving technique for developing and improving information systems. In a working session that followed, the participants used this technique to analyze and develop two separate information services and their information systems.
Mr. Michael Riggs of FAO-RAP, in the afternoon session, described FAO's Tools and Resources for ICM in ARD. He also distributed several CD-based information resources and self-learning modules such as IMARK Resource Kit and demonstrated their use through a hands-on practice session.
Day 4: Development of a Web-enabled NAIS.
Developing a web based information platform was the agenda on the 4th day of the workshop. Starting with how to develop a storyboard and use a web editor the participants were individually guided step-by-step by Dr. Sahdev Singh, Mr. Agus Prajogo and Dr. Maru through developing a Web based platform for their NAIS. The outputs of this session included prototype web sites of each participating country NAIS.
Day 5: Distance Learning, Agricultural Market Information Systems and Regional and Global Initiatives for ICM in ARD.
In the morning of the final day of the Workshop, after a brief review of the Workshop by Dr. Maru, Dr. Robert Raab and Ms. Buenafe of SDLEARN presented about ICT based learning in agriculture and conducted a hands-on work session on e-learning using SDLEARN's web-based course on Digital Literacy. Mr. Sunil Khairnar, CEO of AgriWatch made his presentation on Agricultural Market Information Systems in the afternoon. Dr. Qiao-Qiao Zhang of CABI introduced the participants to CABI information products. Dr. Seishi Ninomiya, NARO-Japan made his presentation on application of ICTs in Regional networking of agricultural projects. This was followed by two presentations by Ms. Bhava Dungana and Mr. Naylin Oo from UNESCAP on their organizations ICT and ICM related activities under the titles UN-ESCAP e Community Centers and UN-ESCAP Program FADINAP, a regional fertilizer network.
The first part of training was concluded through a closing ceremony presided by Dr. Seishi Ninomiya, Chairman, APARIS Steering Committee. He presented all participants with Certificates of Achievement.
Day 6: Field Trip to International ICT Expo in Bangkok.
On day 6 (August 8), the participating trainees visited the International ICT Expo organized in Bangkok from 4-8 August 2004. The International Expo had hundreds of booths of national, regional and international ICT organizations, both public and private. The Expo demonstrated various up-to-date and upcoming software and hardware technologies for emerging knowledge society.
Days 7, 8, 9: Participation in Joint Conference of Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (AFITA) and World Congress on Computers in Agriculture (WCCA).
AFITA and WCCA jointly organized an international conference from 9-12 August 2004 at the Four Seasons Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. The AFITA/WCCA2004 Conference provided forums for agriculture related professionals to exchange information on applications and developments in the use of IT. There were approximately 400 participants with more than 100 paper, poster and technical workshop contributions from various countries and organizations. Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand graciously presided at the grand opening ceremony of the Conference on 9 August 2004 at 15:00 hrs. The Conference was organized by following institutions: AFITA, AIT, ASAE, CIGR, EFITA, FAO, HAII, IAALD, JIRCAS, JSAI, MOAC, NECTEC, PanAFITA, UNESCO, and NSTDA.
In the Conference, APAARI was represented by Dr. Sahdev Singh, APAARI Assistant Executive Secretary; Dr. Ajit Maru, APAARI Resource Person and Dr. Ashraf Tanvir, APARIS Steering Committee Member. All 9 training participants also attended the Conference as the second part of their training program. They actively participated in APAARI contributions to the Conference. During the Conference, Dr. Sahdev Singh delivered a 90-minute technical workshop on Distributed Database Systems in Agricultural Research, chaired a paper presentation session on Information Resources and Databases and presented a paper on APARIS. Dr. Ajit Maru presented an APAARI study on status of ICT/ICM in ARD in the Asia-Pacific Region. The full papers and presentations of APAARI contributions are available on the official AFITA/WCCA 2004 web site.
Day 10: Informal and Formal Feedback on Training Workshop.
On the last day of the workshop, Dr. Sahdev Singh and Dr. Ajit Maru had a 2-hour meeting with training participants. During the meeting, participants filled a feedback form and made a brief presentation about his/her experience during the training. The compiled report of the feedback, highly positive, is presented on APAARI web site.
Conclusions
The following were the lessons learned from the conduct of this Workshop:
- There is strong enthusiasm in the participating countries to use ICT for agricultural and rural development.
- The skill levels needed for ICM and embedding ICTs in agricultural information systems in the participating countries are weak.
- A participatory mode with emphasis on working sessions for the Workshop was found to be successful.
- The design of the Workshop around frameworks, tools and techniques for ICM was found to be useful to convey the significance of ICM in NAIS within the short time available.
Participants could develop a basic web-based platform for a NAIS, though most had no exposure to web design and development.
Sahdev Singh
APAARI Assistant Executive Secretary
Asia-PacificAsia-Pacific Agricultural Research Information System (APARIS)
The 3rd APARIS Steering Committee Meeting was held from 9:00 -12:00 am on 8th August 2004 at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. The participants included: Dr. Seishi Ninomiya, JIRCAS/NARO, Japan (Chair, APARIS Steering Committee); Dr. Ashraf Tanvir, PARC, Pakistan (Member); Dr. Malcolm Hazelman, FAO-RAP (Member); Dr. Ajit Maru, APAARI Resource Person (special invitee to report to GLOBAL.RAIS Initiative); Mr. P. K. Saha, APAARI (Liaison Officer); Dr. Qiaoqiao Zhang, CABI (special invitee); Mr. Satoru Miyata, Regional JIRCAS Coordinator (special invitee); and Dr. Sahdev Singh, APAARI (Member Secretary).
Dr. Seishi Ninomiya, the APARIS Steering Committee Chairperson, welcomed the participants and invited comments on the meeting agenda items and the background paper that was provided to all participants in advance and also during the meeting. He emphasized that the meeting discussions should concentrate on practical, doable activities that APARIS can undertake considering its current financial and manpower limitations. Dr. Ashraf Tanvir of PARC, Pakistan was invited to co-chair the meeting and he also welcomed the participants. The main agenda for discussions was the APARIS Business Plan for 2004-2007 under 3 broad themes as follows:
- Advocacy for enabling, enhancing and enlarging agriculture related information systems at national, sub-regional and regional levels in the Asia-Pacific region
- Capacity development in information and communications management and use of appropriate information and communications technologies for national agricultural information systems
- Integration of information systems within NARS, in the Asia-Pacific Region and with other regional and global agricultural information systems such as the GLOBAL.RAIS Webring.
The Chair invited Dr. Sahdev Singh, Member Secretary, to brief the participants on on-going activities of APARIS as described in details in the Background Paper. The participants expressed their satisfaction with the APAARI efforts and also agreed that APARIS should continue to focus on the above three broad themes in accordance with the GFAR's initiative to evolve a global agricultural information system of which APARIS will be the Asia-Pacific node. The deliberations prioritized the activities of APARIS Business Plan for 2004-2007 as follows:
a) Advocacy
- Collecting, collating and providing access to information, on a biannual basis, related to status of ICT use and information systems in NARS of the region and agriculture and rural development related ICT use indicators at national and regional level (2005 and 2007).
- Developing an advocacy paper on ICT and agricultural information related policy and strategy issues at national, sub-regional and regional level that can provide fact-based support for advocacy role of APARIS (early 2005).
- Organize, during APAARI General Assemblies, a 1/2 day sensitization and awareness workshop on policy and strategy issues in enabling, enhancing and enlarging agricultural information systems for senior NARS and agricultural policy makers and managers (2004-2007).
- Identify and publish success stories on ICT/ICM in ARD using case studies from selected Asian countries (2005).
- Associate and network with other initiatives and forums to promote awareness about ICT/ICM in ARD and also publicize APARIS in the on-going AFITA Conference in Bangkok as well as the next one in India in 2006; FAO-RAP/SPC sub-regional workshop in the Pacific in September 2004; and as co-sponsor of the NARO Field Server Workshop in Bangkok in January 2005. (2004-2007)
b) Capacity Development
- An Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop for NINPs for need assessment and to evolve a framework for National Agricultural Information Systems (in 2005).
- Three Sub-regional Training Workshops for NINPs and two ICT/ICM trainers from each country (in 2006):
- South Asia (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) in collaboration with SAIC.
- South-East Asia (ASEAN countries) in collaboration with SEARCA.
- the Pacific (APAARI member countries) in collaboration with SPC.
- National Workshops, facilitated by NINPs and trained NAIS trainers, for two officers from each major national agricultural institute (in 2007).
c) Integration of Agricultural Information Systems and Resources
- Develop an online compendium of good practices, standards, guidelines, protocols etc. for agricultural information exchange and sharing in the Asia-Pacific region (2004-2007).
- Participate, as a representative of the Asia-Pacific Region's NARS, in negotiations related to setting of standards, guidelines, protocols related to agricultural information systems at the global level (2004-2007).
- Conduct seminars at Sub-Regional levels, South Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific countries related to sharing and exchange of information, especially on the use of standards, guidelines and best practices in agricultural information systems in conjunction with the Sub-regional training workshops proposed in the Capacity Development section and other APAARI related activities. (2004-2007).
- Further strengthen the directory of agricultural information on the web and the Gateway/Portal function to access the information resources of various institutes (2005-2007).
- Promote data and information sharing among various member institutes using applications such MetBroker and localized crop models.
- In consultation with GFAR and other regional and sub-regional forums, integrate APARIS as Asia-Pacific node in the Global Web Ring of Agricultural Information Systems (2004-2005).
It was suggested that APAARI should develop a detailed Business Plan using concept notes for these activities and submit to GFAR for consideration and also identify potential collaborators and donors in close consultation with APARIS Steering Committee members and focal points in Support Group Organizations such as GFAR, FAO-RAP, ACIAR, AIT, JIRCAS/NARO, CABI, SDLEARN, and others.
Sahdev Singh
APAARI Assistant Executive Secretary
West Asia & North AfricaFuture AARINENA web site: a mock-up
One of the most important scopes of AARINENA Regional Agricultural Information System (RAIS) is to facilitate the access to scientific and technical information on agricultural and rural topics by end-users. Our mission is to generate accurate and up-to-date information from all the regional countries and convert it into useful knowledge.
In this regard, and in support to the mission of RAIS, the AARINENA-RAIS Secretariat is going to publish the new version of AARINENA web site, developed in collaboration with GFAR. This new website will serve as a gateway to useful information of the region and sub-regions.
In this new version, you can identify three main streamlines, organized in sections:
1) The first section is related to the AARINENA association. It contains the general information about AARINENA, its vision and mission, the governance group (which includes the Executive Committee, AARINENA Secretary and Secretariat and etc.), Sub-regional Organizations;
2) The second section is related to the AARINENA-RAIS. It contains general information about the RAIS (Steering Committee and RAIS Secretariat functions and composition), databases, regional networks, E-discussions, events, publications, etc;
3) The third section contains Tools like spotlights, search engine, site map and a link to the GLOBAL.RAIS Webring connecting AARINENA information system to all other RAIS through EGFAR, within the latter acting as the gateway of regional gateways.
In the left side you can find the spotlight section as a rolling-up text window. The middle of the page contains a brief introduction about AARINENA, while in the bottom AARINENA's Global Partners with their own logos and direct link to their web sites can be found.
The new draft version of the website was sent to all AARINENA-RAIS Steering Committee members for comments and suggestions before the new website was finalized and launched. We are also trying to develop the Arabic version of the AARINENA website since about 90 percent of the region's native language is Arabic. For this purpose, we need to collaborate with one or more countries of the region.
One of the new tools we are developing is a form, which will allow us to collect information related to the Agricultural Researchers in the region. The idea is to develop a Regional Agricultural Researchers database. The form is very easy to fill and it's available on the new version of the website.
We also have developed a simple search system to browse and find more easily all the National Agricultural Research Institutions, Universities, NGOs, etc. in the sub-regional countries. When you go through the mentioned link, a page appears which allow you to select the country and the object which you want to search.
Taraneh Ebrahimi
AARINENA-RAIS Secretariat
Inter-Regional ActivitiesThe 2nd INCANA annual meeting
Following the first Inter-regional workshop on cotton research carried out in October 2002 in Tehran, Iran, the 2nd annual meeting of INCANA will be held from 6-8 September 2004 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The agenda of this meeting is available on the INCANA website.
During the meeting executive committee members and the subcommittees for each of cotton research related disciplines will be elected. Some of the subjects of work plan of INCANA for 2004-2005 are as follow:
- Publication of INCANA newsletter, success stories, reference booklet, research abstracts;
- Enhancement of INCANA website including database on research programs and projects in the member countries;
- Conduct of pest risk analysis;
- Organization of training workshops on cotton research priorities and scientific visits;
- Exchange of germplasm;
- Conduct of joint research projects on cotton research priorities;
- Preparation of the 3rd INCANA meeting in 2005.
Aisel Gheredaghli
INCANA Secretariat
GFAR Secretariat
c/o FAO, SDR, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00100 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39.06.5705.3413 Fax +39.06.5705.3898
E-mail: