FAO AGRIS, an initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), joins the global celebration of International Open Access Week 2025 (20-26 October), highlighting this year’s theme: Who owns our knowledge? In Sudan, agricultural researchers Ahlam Ismail Musa and Khalida Mohammed Nour Mohammed Saleh Adam provide concrete examples of how open access strengthens research continuity and knowledge sharing in the agricultural sector.

Championing open access from Wad Medani

For over two decades, Ahlam Ismail Musa, Senior Librarian at Sudan’s Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), has led national efforts to make agricultural knowledge widely accessible. As Sudan’s FAO AGRIS National Coordinator, she manages the Sudan National Agriculture Information Network (SNAIN), ensuring that local research outputs are preserved, digitized, and shared globally through FAO AGRIS.

FAO AGRIS functions as an international open-access repository for agricultural science, providing standardized metadata, indexing research outputs, and supporting multilingual accessibility. By incorporating Arabic-language metadata, the platform increases visibility and usability for researchers across Sudan and the Arab region, facilitating equitable access to scientific information.

Despite personal and professional challenges, including partial hearing loss since childhood, Ahlam has advanced knowledge access through national workshops, regional collaborations, and partnerships with organizations such as ITOCA, Research4Life, and the Arabic Union Catalog. The re-launch of the ARC Support Association, uniting young researchers and senior scientists, further reinforces Sudan’s open science infrastructure.

Read more about Ahlam’s story here.

Reclaiming lost knowledge through collaboration

Reclaiming lost knowledge through collaboration

At the Nyala Research Station in South Darfur, Khalida Mohammed Nour Mohammed Saleh Adam is also advancing open access in practice. After years of instability and the loss of genetic bank, she turned to the FAO AGRIS to rebuild her research base and connect with peers globally.

Her work focuses on evaluating the productivity of Barbari sorghum and other local crop varieties, which are vital for food security in Sudan’s drylands. Through regular use of FAO AGRIS for literature reviews and data collection, she demonstrates how open repositories enable continuity of research, even in contexts affected by disruption. FAO AGRISs metadata indexing, and search capabilities allow her to identify relevant studies and datasets that were previously difficult to access.

Read more on Khalida’s story here.

Open knowledge for a shared future

The experiences of Ahlam and Khalida illustrate that open access ensures research outputs remain accessible and reusable by those who generate, apply, and disseminate them. Through FAO AGRIS and national initiatives, Sudan contributes to global knowledge-sharing systems, supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to promote equitable access to information.

Discover FAO AGRIS, visit the search platform here.