The Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) specifically address issues related to the needs of the rural poor who are dependant on agriculture. The international community is addressing policy issues such as the restricted access to information and knowledge by a limited proportion of the population particularly in developing countries: the uneven distribution in the access and use of new information and communication technologies among regions, and even more so between rural and urban communities.
The international community is now aware of the many barriers that limit access to information and knowledge -such as lack of infrastructure, education and training-, and the availability of information in local languages and norms and standards globally agreed among others.
FAO recognized these limitations, and see the need to discuss and set policies related to management of and access agricultural information. Articles are presented on relevant activities on agricultural information management at national and regional levels and the use of Internet. A new section is introduced with some opinions on the use of ICTs. (
To all interested, the articles of the bulletin can be accessed through the web site of COAIM: http://www.fao.org/COAIM/index_en.asp
The articles are presented in their original language (FAO's official languages). We invite you to send your electronic address to receive regularly the next issues of the bulletin. Information of interest to other users is welcome: [email protected]
