Decision support tools
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This is a selection of electronic decision support tools for planners, researchers and extension agents, to enable them to make informed decisions and interventions regarding technology assessment, transfer, validation, adaptation and adoption. |
| Labour Saving Technologies and Practices Decision Support Tool (http://www.fao.org/sd/teca/tools/lst/index_en.html) This tool classifies the technologies in five sections that cover areas where a shortage of labour or other sources of power is undermining household food and nutrition security and the sustainability of rural livelihoods: land preparation and cultivation, harvesting, post-harvest operations, household tasks, rural transport. |
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| Rice Doctor (http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/riceDoctor/default.htm) Rice Doctor is the field diagnostic tool of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for identifying factors limiting rice crop growth in the tropics. It is on-line in the Rice Knowledge Bank Web site and offers a list of possible diagnostics by symptoms in the plant, crop or seed. |
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| The Livestock and Environment Toolbox
The toolbox consists of pages of information on livestock production systems and the way in which they interact with the environment. Access to these pages has been structured such that the reader can use the information, either to evaluate the impact of existing livestock systems on the environment, or to identify appropriate technology, policy and/or institutional management options, to alter the way in which livestock affect the environment under a given set of conditions. |
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| Financial Tool for Bamboo and Rattan Business (http://www.inbar.int/totem/INBAR tool zero.xls ) This simple financial tool has been prepared for making studies on the viability of a small industry. |
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| Dynamic Research Evaluation for Management (DREAM) (http://www.ifpri.org/dream.htm) The Dynamic Research Evaluation for Managers (DREAM) software system is an impact assessment tool that enables analysts to readily calculate the size and distribution of the economic benefits from agricultural research and development activities using a range of market model options. (Download size: 6.1MB) |
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| Management of Agricultural Research: A Training Manual
This practical manual includes case studies and covers the following areas: research planning, organizational principles and design, leadership, motivation, team building and conflict management, managing human resources, management information systems, computers and network techniques, financial management, research-extension linkage, information services and documentation and institute evaluation. (On-line) |
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| Community Environmental Assessment Toolbox: The idea, methods and tools for participatory assessment, monitoring and evaluation in community forestry. (http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/x5307e/x5307e08.htm) Community Environmental Assessment is used to gather information in order to analyse the environmental effects of planned and/or completed activities. The tool provides a framework in which insiders can make observations and judge the value of the change. The value is determined by giving a number value to each environmental factor. In this way an environmental score is established. |
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