In the last years, the use of information in technology transfer has come of age. Global information services have revolutionized the way agriculture technology information is catalogued and disseminated.
There have been several attempts to establish a global repository of agricultural technologies. There are however a few difficulties with existing repositories, e.g.:
Looking for information can be time-consuming and for some even costly unless you are looking for very specific information and preferably already know where to find it. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is implementing TECA using its wide experience achieved in many developing countries. This is an initiative that aims to promote synergies and elaborate collaborative programs in research and technology knowledge transfer where the partner organizations can best utilize their comparative advantages.
TECA seeks to contribute to food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable development, improving access to information about proven technologies in agriculture, livestock, fisheries and forestry.
Within this context, proven technology is defined as practices and techniques, tools and equipment, germplasm (plant or animal), know-how and skills, or combinations of the above components. Technologies always need to be described in their context and are validated when they can be easily adaptable to the biophysical environment, accepted by the society, are low cost and environmentally friendly.
TECA was developed by the Research and Technology Development Service (SDRR) and the WAICENT/FAOINFO Dissemination Management Branch (GILW) of FAO.
FAO's purpose in developing TECA is to provide a framework for technology transfer, to contribute to the harmonisation of standards for technology description, and also to address language barriers that constrain access to, and use of, available proven technologies. Currently the Platform it is available in English and Spanish, and during 2004 it will be released in French too.
The TECA initiative has a website and a portable tool for a network of repositories, a data standard for easy information exchange between repositories, and improves access to information about proven agricultural technologies.
TECA is Web-based but can work as a stand-alone system and regular updates of the database on CD-ROM can also be produced.
Main considerations during the development of TECA were the following:
TECA initiative was launched officially through a side event during the Second Consultation on Agricultural Information Management (COAIM) held in Rome in 2002 and it was very well received by the participants. In the ensuing discussion, a number of issues related to content development and improvement of the database structure were raised. These included among them, the establishment of partnerships for its development and the creation of contacts and linkages with other interested parties who already have technology inventories.
Since them the Research and Technology Development Service has already signed agreement for content development with the Department for International Development (DFID), the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) -which improves the well-being of producers and users of bamboo and rattan within the context of a sustainable resource base by coordinating and supporting strategic and adaptive research and development.
In this line FAO is also collaborating with the Spanish Centre for Irrigation Technologies (CENTER), the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and the Sahel Institute (INSAH).
Moreover, during the last year TECA has been supporting the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) in Honduras thanks to a FAO project in which a hundred of proven technologies have been documented and packaged. Now these technologies are ready to be transfer to similar economic and environmental farming systems in Central America and other parts of the world as there are simple, efficient and low cost. The standard field structure of TECA has also been used by the SPFS in ASIA to documentate available technologies. These are also displayed to all the users of TECA.
This initiative brings international, national and local partners together to address the needs of practitioners and local populations.
We look forward to receive comments and suggestions from the readers of this bulletin. If you are interested in participating in TECA like partner, please contact Ms Isabel Alvarez, Chief, Research and Technology Development Service (SDRR): [email protected]
