Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 11:13:23 +0530
From: Subbiah Arunachalam
Friends:
For those of you interested in building national agricultural information
systems, here is an interesting report.
Arun
[Subbiah Arunachalam]
FERTILE GROUND : OPPORTUNITIES FOR GREATER COHERENCE IN
AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Besemer, H.; Addison, C.; Ferguson, J.
International Institute for Communication and Development
(IICD) (2003)
This study examines the current landscape of Internet-based
agricultural information services, to identify gaps and
inconsistancies, and to suggest avenues for bringing
greater coherence to the system as a whole.
As the number of ICT-enabled information services increases,
the intended user risks being swamped with possibilities to
address his or her information needs. The challenge faced
by donor-supported agricultural information services is to
make it easier for those who need information to find what
they are looking for by working together to build a more
coherent total system.
This report looks at the issue of coherence among
agricultural information services from three perspectives:
* Service providers: institutions providing development-
oriented information services in the agriculture sector
* Agriculture stakeholders in the South: information
workers addressing the needs of the main clients for the
services provided, such as extension workers, researchers
and policymakers
* Donors: providing financial support to many of the major
agricultural information services and systems. <P>What
emerges is a picture of an overall system in which there
are striking gaps, areas of inefficiency, and duplications,
as well as a certain mismatch between the information needs
of the South and what is being provided by the current
donor-supported services. To address these issues, the
authors suggest both practical and policy-oriented actions
that all three stakeholder groups can take to ensure a more
coherent approach to matching supply and demand. Technical
options for ensuring greater flexibility in mixing and
matching information from different sources are explored in
some detail.
The survey and analysis as well as the recommendations
presented in this report were verified in a stakeholder
workshop hosted by the United Kingdom Department for
International Development in London, June 2003. [author]
TO SEE THIS DOCUMENT, PLEASE GO TO:
http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/reports/report19.pdf
