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Expert Consultation on International Agricultural Information Systems

FAO, CGIAR, CTA, INASP and GFAR as partners organized an Expert Consultation on International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology - Review of Progress and Prospects during 19th and 21st October at FAO, Rome. The objectives of the consultation were:

- To define for the wider agricultural information community the future roles of and relationships between the various stakeholder networks and initiatives in agricultural science and technology.
- To raise awareness of the present "business models" for self-publishing by agricultural institutions and possible new approaches offered by the Open Access model.
- To define for the wider agricultural information community the future roles of and relationships between the various capacity building initiatives in agricultural information management.
- To initiate and/or consolidate a range of focused working groups for the development and validation of standards and guidelines for information exchange.

The consultations validated the outcomes of the GFAR supported regional and global ICM consultations and indicated action for advocacy to improve ICM in ARD systems starting from the NARS, capacity development, especially to generate digital content and collaborative efforts to improve content management related to agriculture globally. Technical resources such as standards, tools, applications etc will be developed through collaboration and consultation among all partners and stakeholders of ARD to facilitate digitization of content. Task forces for mapping action for advocacy, capacity development and content management are being set up. The draft report is available with GFAR Secretariat. The final report, now in preparation, will be circulated shortly.

A.M.