“Farmers are not waiting for the solutions from formal sectors. They are very much enterprising and innovative for their own survival”
The Asia Pacific regional e-consultation has started last Tuesday and introductions are in full swing. We have asked participants kick off with a short introduction followed by description of an  experience where agricultural knowledge and innovation could be transformed into regional development im...

What are These E-consultations About?
Simone Staiger-Rivas is coordinating the regional e-consultations. In a short video she explains why it is so important to join those virtual discussions. You can see the video here with subtitles in different langauges, like Russian, French, Spanish and more. Here is the text: I am Simone Staiger a...

Check Now: Dates and Background Readings for Regional E-Consultations
Join the regional consultation of your choice and provide your perspectives on the priorities for agricultural research for development, working back from the desired development impacts to ensure research and innovation are focused on meeting development goals. Go to the following registration page...

Asia Pacific Region: Background Readings for GCARD Process Now Available
The Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) is leading the regional e-consultation within the GCARD process. If you are interested in joining this consultation you might want to download and have a look at some background readings that APAARI provides: Synthesis of ...

Get Ready for the GCARD 2010 Regional E-Consultations
Organized by GFAR, the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) is more than just a Conference – it’s a multi-year process of learning and continuous updating of the global agricultural research for development (AR4D) system. Each GCARD is organized every 2 years starting i...

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• Topic: E-consultation for the Asia Pacific Region: Approaching the end of week 1 - Summary and looking forw
• Topic: E-consultation: Transforming agricultural knowledge into development impact / Asia Pacific Region

Topic: E-consultation for the Asia Pacific Region: Approaching the end of week 1 - Summary and looking forw

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E-consultation for the Asia Pacific Region: Approaching the end of week 1 - Summary and looking forw
Dear participants of the Asia Pacific regional e-consultation, If you just joined the event, please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself and share a regional experience that shows how an agricultural innovation in your region had a development impact. In this message I summarize the contributions that we have received so far and give you important information for the upcoming days of this consultation. Summary After the first few days of consultation we already heard from participants from different sectors, like universities, private sector, research centers and NGOs. You are involved with agriculture as professors, researchers, students, project managers, business owners, economists and more. Contributions already covered countries, like Bangladesh, India, Australia, Sri Lanka or the Philippines among others. Thanks to all of you for your time and the high quality of your messages! Here are some of the issues that have been covered so far through your valuable contributions: · DR. Amjad M. Husaini from the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences highlights the need to make farming more profitable. He asks for practical ideas and promises to give us some later on in the discussion. Farmer competitiveness is also an issues highlighted by Romel Armecin from the National Abaca Research Center (NARC), Philippines along with problems of Soil fertility. · Dr. Shaikh Tanveer Hossain from an NGO in Bangladesh highlights three priority issues for agricultural development in Bangladesh and he shares his experiences in those areas: Food Security& diet sufficiency, Climate Change for a highly vulnerable Bangladesh, and Soil Fertility & Safe Agriculture. · Dr. MK Dhillon, and entomologist, working for ICRISAT, India is curious about how the native and invaded/exotic natural enemies -insect pests dynamics will be influenced in response to climate change and the changing agro-ecosystem. · Patricia Fuentes-Cross from the University of Adelaide in Australia wonders about the potential of native crops to improve food supply and limit the effects of climate change acknowledging the need for innovative marketing strategies for those crops. On a similar note, Fardous Mohammad Safiul Azam, from the University of Development Alternative, Dhaka, Bangladesh emphasis on the growing area of work on underutilized crops. · Sonwright B. Maddul from Benguet State University in La Trinidad, Philippines shares experiences on more effective knowledge dissemination through Farmers' Information and Technology Services (FITS) Centers. · Several participants share views and experiences on how to put the farmers into the centre through farmer participation, farmer associations, acknowledgement of Farmer’s capacity to innovate, scaling-up of indigenous knowledge (T, J James, Anthropologist, Peermade Development Society, India) , as well as improve agricultural technology and practices of the local farmers. (Win Win Myint, Action Aid, Myanmar). Equally Sonali Bisht from India illustrates the failure of the agriculture research and development system to address the needs of small holder farmers. We will certainly hear more introductions next week. I invite all of you to already take up some of the issues that have been raised so far. I attach you the compilation of the introductions in case you want to read them in a format that is printable and perhaps easier to digest. Please don’t hesitate to respond, comment and build on those contributions. Background readings for next week I also encourage you to have a closer look at two documents that have been prepared by Prof. R. B. Singh, Lead Consultant for the Asia – Pacific Region as a summary of a larger regional review on regional research and development needs within the global context of agricultural research: • Key issues (main drivers and major challenges) of AR4D in Asia-Pacific: http://www.apaari.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/main-drivers.pdf • Questions for facilitating the e-Consultation: http://www.apaari.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/questions.pdf Next week, we will discuss the key issues compiled in those documents. Some of them have already been raised by you. If you want to keep up-to-date on the other e-regional events, check the GCARD blog: http://gcardblog.wordpress.com/ and Twitter page: http://twitter.com/GCARD2010 Thank you for participating in this consultation. Simone Staiger-Rivas Facilitator of the Asia Pacific e-consultation Email: [email protected] Skype: simonestaiger Web: http://egfar.org/egfarW/website/gcard/regional-consultations/ap

Topic: E-consultation: Transforming agricultural knowledge into development impact / Asia Pacific Region

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E-consultation: Transforming agricultural knowledge into development impact / Asia Pacific Region
Dear Participants of the Asia Pacific E-consultation, In less than a week we will begin our e-consultation, an online discussion which will go from September 1 to September 20, 2009. The main theme will be possible pathways to transform agricultural knowledge into development impact. The consultation results will feed into the Global Conferences on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) and capture the contributions and perspectives of all stakeholders in the agricultural research, education and development systems. The overall objective is to reshape the global agricultural research for development agenda and centre it on the needs of the poor. A warm welcome to all of you! In this message I will give you some details on the agenda of the e-consultation, the languages, and the tools that we will use to communicate. First of all, here is a short outline of the agenda for this online event: • Pre-event activity – Starting now we invite you to browse through some information resources, like the issues raised by the regional review that has been developed for this consultation, or the summary of the results of a questionnaire led by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) related to future opportunities for research and innovations to reduce poverty and hunger, improve human health and nutrition, and enhance ecosystem resilience. Please go to http://www.apaari.org/gcard-asia-pacific-activities/ to download the available background information. • Week 1 – We invite you to introduce yourself and share your experiences and views from the region, relating agricultural innovation to development impact. • Week 2 – Together we reflect on the issues raised in the preceding week and put our experiences in perspective of the regional review findings. Participants are invited to suggest and discuss reforms to make innovations help to have greater impact on major development needs of the region • Week 3 (3 days) – Participants receive a summary of the discussions and make closing remarks. Please note that this consultation will be held in English. We are currently trying to find a facilitation support for Chinese contributions and will inform you shortly. We estimate that participants will spend about 2 hours per week in the e-consultation over the 3-week period. Finally let me give you some information about the discussion platform and tools: • This discussion will be e-mail based and the address is: [email protected] • But you can also read and post messages on this virtual platform: http://egfar.org/jforum/forums/show/31.page • To unsubscribe from this mailing list in the future, send an E-mail message to [email protected] leaving the subject blank and entering the following one-line message: unsubscribe GCARD2010-AP-L Please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] if you have any difficulties in using the above described communication channels. I look forward to meeting you on-line next week, Simone Staiger-Rivas Facilitator of the Asia Pacific e-consultation Email: [email protected] Skype: simonestaiger Web: http://egfar.org/egfarW/website/gcard/regional-consultations/ap

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