Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Who can participate in TECA?
TECA was launched officially during the 2002 Consultation on Agricultural Information Management (COAIM), to help FAO technical units and its partners and projects to better preserve the knowledge of successful technologies and good practises in the field. From the beginning the agriculture research centres at international and national level have been involved in the initiative that, also targets Non Governmental Organizations, farmers' associations, universities and academic centres, as well as other organizations focused on technology transfer.

What can TECA offer to me as a user?
Visiting the TECA Web site the user will have free access to information and knowledge on proven technologies for small scale farmers with categories such as production –animal, crops and horticulture production, grasslands and forest and non timber forest products- post-harvest, natural resources management and fish culture and aquaculture.

What can TECA offer to me as a partner?
There are many different options to collaborate with the initiative as a partners. Partners have access to the Intranet where they can use the tools developed by an interdisciplinary team to document technologies on-line in a template that enables the partner to attach pictures and various types of files.

Partners can benefit from free support and maintenance of the central database installed in FAO headquarter's servers, or they can request the code and the structure of the database to install this powerful tool in their on servers and Web sites. TECA also offers other additional services to the most actively involved partners on demand.

Partners will have opportunity to better preserve and disseminate their technologies and good practices through a central gateway and will interact with other key institutions working in the same field to develop linkages and partnerships.

Why to use the farming system classifications?
In addition to the geographical options –by country and other levels- to save and retrieve information TECA has a new and essential option with the farming system categories described in the study jointly conducted by FAO and the World Bank Farming Systems and Poverty . This helps to place the technology in relation to the environmental and social context.

What is TECA and What are its objectives?
It is a FAO initiative that promotes the documentation and transfer of proven and successful technologies for small-scale farmers in member countries. To know more about its objectives visit the page “About TECA” (link here).

Has TECA been used to document technologies in a project?
TECA has been used very successfully in the documentation of technologies in Honduras. SDRR implemented a project in support of the Special Programme for Food Security in this country and 103 proven technologies where described and inserted in the database of TECA. The project has a Web site with more information about other related activities http://www.fao-sict.un.hn/index.htm

Who are the owners of the technologies described in TECA?
TECA makes a clear distinction between the different actors involved in the process:
-technology users or technology generators;
-the person or institution that has documented the technology;
-the person or institution that has inserted the technology in TECA.

In TECA we do not use the word owner because the technologies described are well known and adopted. If a record is inserted without the pertinent references, the author of the description has the right to request the recognition of that work by the citation and the links to the Web site of the institution if it is decided to keep the technology in the database.

What kind of technologies are described in the TECA Database?
As a guide to contributors, technology is defined as practices and techniques, tools and equipment, know-how and skills, or combinations of the above components. Technologies always need to be described in their context, with references to the policies, infrastructure, environment and culture.

Is support material available?
There is a manual for users in English and Spanish.

Can I also find methodologies and research studies in the database?
No. It is not the scope of the database to document methodologies, only technologies validated in the field. There is a section in the Web site, not in the database, called Technolibrary with a section for methodologies.

Are there other databases with technologies in FAO?
There are other databases in FAO with technologies or good practices and other relevant content related to technologies that are not contemplated in TECA such as seed varieties or industrial machinery and technology. This Web sites are linked from the TECA.