By SENIORL ANZU of NARI,
who attended the meeting in Bangkok,
Thailand
The
accession and sharing of agricultural information will increase globally as a
result of greater participation in a new information management and sharing
platform developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United
Nations.
This new initiative, Coherence in Information
for Agricultural Research for Development (CIARD), is an online database information
management system that is aimed at creating a one-stop forum for different
agricultural information systems that are currently available from different
organisations throughout the world.
More
than 30 professionals in information and communication from 20 countries in the
Asia Pacific region were introduced to the new system last week in Bangkok, Thailand.
The
countries were introduced to the forum through a workshop organised by the
Asia-Pacific association of agricultural research institutions (APAARI), as a
regional forum, which has been promoting the use and application of information
communication technology/information communication management (ICT/ICM) in
agricultural research for development (AR4D) in the region through its programme
‘Asia-Pacific agricultural research information system (APARIS)’. APARIS is
closely associated with the Rome-based global forum for agricultural research
(GFAR) and FAO on such innovations for agricultural development.
The
initiative is currently available online (www.ciard.net).
To
contribute, access and learn from the different databases and systems worldwide,
organisations can log on the site and register to participate in this exciting
innovation which comprises national, regional and international ICT/ICM
developments across the globe.
The
Pacific region was represented by Papua New
Guinea (National Agriculture Research Institute), Fiji (Ministry of Agriculture) and Samoa (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries).
According
to APAARI, the workshop was to assist the member national agricultural research
systems (NARS) with new capacities for better agricultural information
management through revitalising APARIS activities and through which
strengthening global ICM4ARD initiatives to improve effective use of
information by all stakeholders for Agricultural Research for oDevelopment
(ARD) in the region and the world over.
The
main objective of the workshop was to orient participants to CIARD initiative
and equip them to contribute to the CIARD roadmap to information nodes and gateways
(CIARD RING). It was also to orient participants to the potential opportunities
of new ICT/ICM for AR4D in the areas of research, extension, marketing and
agri-business, and identify mechanisms to strengthen Asia-Pacific APARIS for
efficient exchange of data, knowledge and technologies in the region and
present the status of ICT/ICM in AR4D in the region.
The
major outcomes include:
·
Increasing
the awareness on new ICT/ICM initiatives among information and communication
managers of national agricultural information Systems (NAIS);
·
Promotion
of the CIARD initiative, capacity building for NAIS in the Asia-Pacific region
to contribute to the CIARD initiative, and registration of NAIS services in the
CIARD RING; and
·
Mechanisms
for strengthening APARIS to undertake better advocacy, networking, partnerships
and human and institutional capacity strengthening programmes in the region and
a status report on ICT/ICM in AR4D in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The
three-day workshop, which ended on Sept 17, was staged at the Asian Institute
of Technology in Bangkok.
PNG
was invited by FAO to register and be part of the new CIARD RING and benefit
from it.
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