Профиль участника
Г-н Nenad Dragoljic
Организация:
FAO
Страна:
Самоа
Область (области) знаний:
I am working on:
Information Technology in Pacific Islands
Г-н Nenad Dragoljic
Q1. What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?
On the subject of evaluating the potential entry points for governments to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture, the reality on the ground in the Pacific Islands Sub-region clearly illustrates that one size doesn’t fit all. In situations where the number of islands of one Pacific state exceeds by orders of magnitude the number of inhabitants of another island state, or where some states have fast Internet links, while in others people rely on radio stations to get their news, the challenges which various governments face are quite different.
Without getting into particulars of different island countries, the experience shows that connecting to Internet by fast links (e.g. by under-sea optical cable; most Pacific countries still use slower links), and development of communications infrastructure and making it affordable to general population, are among principal drivers for many aspects of society in the Pacific, including agriculture. In addition, when dealing with digitalization with regards to food, the experts frequently point out that the areas such as Fishery and Climate Change, which are very pertinent in the Pacific, should not be generically included in digital agriculture, since they often have different dynamics, but they have as much to benefit from digitalization as agriculture.
Other potential entry points for governments could be: finding synergies between different Ministries, taking stock of digital initiatives at national level, integrating international initiatives with relevant ones locally present, encouraging public-private partnerships, making information and resources available to small holders (no one is left behind), ensuring access to market, creation of government sponsored open agriculture portals (as opposed to profit driven ones), ensuring reliability of agricultural information, encouraging knowledge sharing, ensuring availability of information in local languages (often times many languages are spoken in the same country), and promoting digital literacy (especially since most of the island populations are young and quickly accept new technologies).
Q2. How can the establishment of the Digital Council address the numerous barriers to adoption of these technologies?
One aspect to underline with regards to the barriers to adoption of digital technologies is privacy/confidentiality. In Pacific countries, where populations are seldomly numerous, ensuring privacy/confidentiality of information is sometimes an issue. Techniques of data anonymization, which work in places with higher populations, are sometimes not applicable in the Pacific.
Q3. Do you think that the roles identified for the Digital Council are suitable for facing the food systems challenges outlined above?
Regarding Role 1 (Building a Central Knowledge Hub), one of the starting points could be making a comprehensive inventory of digital initiatives at national level and encouraging national ownership (otherwise acceptance could be difficult).
Q4. What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose?
On the topic of governance structure, it could be beneficial to conduct an input-output study before deciding on the final structure. This would ensure a results-based approach in determining the optimal structure, rather than a process based one.