Introduce Yourself- Welcome and Introductions

I am Dr. Baanda A. Salim, a Senior Lecturer in Information and Electrical Technologies at the Sokoine University of Agriculture at Morogoro, Tanzania.

I am Francis Kachala Library Assitant with Chancellor College Library of the University of Malawi.

I am Dr Devendra Kumar Punia, Associate Professor at FORE School of Management, New Delhi in IT area. I have worked on Agriculture Mission Mode Project under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of Government of India for Ministry of Agriculture. I have worked in IT & E-Governance area for last 14 years. I am also working on e-governance in Urban Sector in a DFID funded Government of Bihar project.

Hi Lisa, Thanks for your welcome message. Hello to all. I'm Jo Cadilhon. I've been working for the past four years at FAO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific as Marketing Officer (Quality Improvement). So I can contribute expertise on how agricultural value chains work to this discussion, if needed. However, I've only recently started exploring ICT tools to support my technical work so I look forward to be more on the learning side in this forum. I facilitate a D-group on linking smallholder farmers to dynamic markets: [url=]http://dgroups.org/Community.aspx?c=7233a2e1-1b39-407f-8479-296fa57edf2…] Best wishes, Jo

Hi everyone, I am Leisa Armstrong from Perth Australia. I am a Computer Science lecturer, with a background as as Cereal Agronomy research. I now have developed a keen interest in the the use of ICT to faciilitate the dessimination of information to farmers in order to improve agricultural productivity. I am also interested the use of data mining and other ict tools and mobile technologies in assisting farmers to make decisions. I am interested to see what ideas will be expressed in the forum.

Hi Lisa, I am Carlos Zárate, a consultant of agro-processing technologies and energy systems for rural develoment and also working on ICT4Development, focussing on the use of FOSS. I am glad to participate in this forum and to share with you.

I am Benjamin K Addom, a PhD Candidate at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA. I am currently doing my dissertation research fieldwork in Ghana that is exploring the role of ICTs in facilitating communication between and among agricultural researchers and local farmers who are the knowledge generators; and agricultural extension agents and other intermediary organizations that are working between the knowledge generators. I look forward to meeting most of you soon. Ben

Hello everybody, The name is Rabiu Auwalu Yakasai, farmers' consultant working on commercial agriculture with Kura Smallholder Farmers' Cooperative Society, Kano State Nigeria. Operation base is Kano River Irrigation Project (KRIP), over 22,000 hectares of surface irrigation structured into smallholder plots that belong to individual farmers for vegetables and rice production. In the struggle to assist the farmers to over come challenges of lack of commercial farm extension; lack of quality farm inputs from reputable sources, poor quality produce, up to 40% post harvest losses of perishable produce, poor market price etc, amid the ICT global trend, I designed an ICT-based approach of communicating Internet information in utilizable format to the farmers. Called the RURAL DIGITAL BRIDGE (RDB); the aim is to expose smallholder farm producers to universal sources of required information that has potential to improve their occupation. RDB is an outcome of study I conducted in two major agricultural production areas on smallholder farmers' connectivity for contactivity. Tangible results of pilot RDB activities include farmer participatory processing tomato variety trial and improvement of Moringa Oleifera value chains in Nigeria. RDB abstract attached herewith and full version of the study (A Study of Rural Internet Connectivity Situation To Guide Strategies for Access to Internet Information by Smallholder Farmers In Rural Kano State, Nigeria -pdf) sent to [email protected] I look forward to share and learn more ideas from the forum.

Hello All ! The name is Sonigitu Ekpe from Cross River State, Nigeria. I currently work with the State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources as the Customer Care / Complaints Officer. I have created awareness in the rural areas on the importance of ICT in agricultural & gender role in food security and sustainable agricultural practices. ICT tools are great tools to reform people with access. I will be glad to share on the learning side of this forum. Thank you

Hi, I am Muhammad Irfan Kasana from Pakistan, working with Pakistan's first Commodity Exchange "National Commodity Exchange Limited" as Manager Research & Product Development & Operations. Core objectives to provide an Online Future Trading Platform wher farmers can directly trade what ever they produce right from there farm gate a true implementation of ICT. I have also developed the largest Agriculture web portal in Pakistan http://www.pakissan.com with more than 7000 subscribers and 2300 active forum members aiming "Connecting Agric-Community for better farming" We are at the moment working on E-Village concept and had already organized successfull conferences with in 3 provinces out of 4 in Pakistan. Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=185839181212 . Here we are striving for ICT & Associated Technologies to the door step of our rural community not only for Agriculture development but for Education, Health, and Social Activities.

Dear All Assalamoalikum This is Mahfuz Hossain Mirdah, Horticulturist, working with Department of Agricultural Extension, Bangladesh. I am involved in horticultural technologies dissemination to the field level special interest to ICT based technology dissemination in mother tongue (bengali). Our agricultural stakeholders feel comfort to have information in bengali and this is time to establish a structured bengali agril. web site in our country to promote production of agriculture commodities and value addition of the produces. I tried to contribute to develop the largest bengali agril. web site http://www.krishibangla.com and will try to add information about agriculture value chain for the growers. It is my pleasure to add me with this forum. Hope to stay with this excellent initiative. Thank you all.

I am Abdolmotalleb Rezaei, Ph.d Scholar in Agricultural extension, university of Tehran, Iran. my dissertation is DESIGNING NEEDS - BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM MODEL FOR EXTENSION OF MANAGING SUSTAINABILITY OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN IRAN. I belived that if we want to cover gap between actors in Agricultural and natural use in rural Area (AKIS, AKIS/RD) we must use of ICT power for this.

Hi everyone My name is Taraneh Ebrahimi. I am working for the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East & North Africa(AARINENA) as AARINENA Web Manager. ICT is one of the main issues which we are working on its development in the Region. It's a pleaseure to participate in this forum to know about lesson learned and your success stories in this regard[url=]www.aarinena.org[/url]

Hi all, I am Giacomo Zanello and currently I am a PhD candidate in Agricultural Economics at the University of Reading (UK). My research focus is on the impacts of ICTs on transaction costs amongs smallholders in the Northern Ghana. Looking forward to learning from the discussion and where I can giving my contribution!

Dear all, My name is Torbjörn Fredriksson and I am in charge of UNCTAD's work on ICT for Development. Our next issue of the Information Economy Report (www.unctad.org/ier) will focus on how the use of ICT in enterprises may contribute to poverty reduction. As agriculture is such an important sector in this context, I hope to learn a lot from this discussion forum. I am looking forward to learning about success/failure cases where different kinds of ICT (community information centres; mobile phones, community radio, etc.) have made a diifference and improved the livelihood of farmers/fishermen. Kind regards Torbjörn

Dear Mr Kasana, Your project (pakissan.com) sounds very interesting. Is there any concrete evidence to date that it has helped to improve the productivity of farmers in Pakistan? If yes, in what ways? Kind regards Torbjörn Fredriksson [quote="irfan.kasana"] Hi, I am Muhammad Irfan Kasana from Pakistan, working with Pakistan's first Commodity Exchange "National Commodity Exchange Limited" as Manager Research & Product Development & Operations. Core objectives to provide an Online Future Trading Platform wher farmers can directly trade what ever they produce right from there farm gate a true implementation of ICT. I have also developed the largest Agriculture web portal in Pakistan http://www.pakissan.com with more than 7000 subscribers and 2300 active forum members aiming "Connecting Agric-Community for better farming" We are at the moment working on E-Village concept and had already organized successfull conferences with in 3 provinces out of 4 in Pakistan. Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=185839181212 . Here we are striving for ICT & Associated Technologies to the door step of our rural community not only for Agriculture development but for Education, Health, and Social Activities. [/quote]

I am Lucio Mello, journalist, member of the communication team from Brazilian Ministry os Agrarian Development ( www.mda.gov.br ). Im studing in the Geography Master Course of Brasilia University (Universidade de Brasília) The relationship betwen IT and Familiar agricultors in Brazil

Hello Everyone, My name is Worlali Senyo, a young graduate in the area of Agricultural Economics from the University of Ghana. I am very passionate about the role of ICTs in Agriculture. I currently work as a research analyst with an ICT research firm in Ghana. I trust that after this forum, experts and ordinary persons will bring to bear their experiences and knowledge on the topic at hand so we can better apprise the role ICT is playing and how best to use it in the Agricultural Value chain process to maximize value. Thank you.

My name is Kiringai Kamau. I work as a development consultant in the Agricultural sector. I promote the adoption of ICTs as the basis of assisting smallholder farmers engage in market oriented agriculture to tap the power of ICTs in promoting governance in the management of collective action initiatives for produce aggregation and wealth creation. Our institutional focus has promoted communities to see the possibility of them i9nvesting in ICT and ICT supported institutional infrastructure via sustainable agricultural enterprises that scale through the entire value chain.

Hi All I am Sameera Wijerathna, Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Activist in Sri Lanka. Currently I am attached to Dialog Telekom (www.dialog.lk), a telecommunication company in Sri Lanka. Under the main theme of ICT4D, I am involved in different programmes and ICT for Agriculture is one of my key areas of interest. Currently I am working on my Masters Degree research - "Mobile Phone for Agricultural Development of Sri Lanka". Sameera. [url=]http://ict4d-in-srilanka.blogspot.com/[/url]

I am Dr. R. Shashi Kumar, working as Reader in the Department of Economics, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India since 1992. My research areas are related to the international monetary issues and the agricultural economics. Currently I am working on the Major Research Project related to India and the European Union Trade and Investment Relationship. I believe that this forum would enlighten the issues of agriculture and it's impact on developmental aspects through creating value chains, to analyse the specific activities through which the agricultural sector can create a competitive advantage. :)

Good evenning everyone from Uganda. My name is Robert Kibaya and do run a local NGO here in Uganda called Kikandwa Rural Communities Development Organization (www.krcdevorg.weebly.com) I look forward to learn and contribute to this forum based on the Rural Africa perspective. Thank you.

Hi every e-corhot My name is benard odero. I have been an e-student at FAO for long. I work as consultant on the application of IT in agricultural education and extension. I believe that the exchange on this topic will help us grow.

Greetings from Hyderabad, India! I am Sugunasri Maddala, an Independent Information Professional. I worked for ICRISAT on FAO's AGROVOC Concept Server. Currently my friends and I are working on Safflower Knowledge Management and Sharing. I look forward to share ideas and information about ICT interventions for agricultural value chain improvement.

Hello, My name is Mélanie Hughes. i'm a Canadian volunteer for PROTEGE QV, a Cameroonian non-profit organisation based in Youndé. (http://www.protegeqv.org/). i work in Québec, Canada for an organisation called Alternatives (http://www.alternatives.ca/). we work on various urban agricultural projects as well as on many ICT4D projects. thank you for this forum, and i look forward to sharing information with you all. Mélanie :D

Hello! My name is Simon Stumpf and I work for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. We boast the world's largest network of leading social entrepreneurs - 2,500 total and hundreds doing innovative work in rural development. I am currently working with my colleagues in Sub Saharan Africa and India to find 100 new "Ashoka Fellows" with cutting edge and systems-changing new ideas in rural innovation and farming. If you are a social entrepreneur with a big, bold new idea or know someone who is, I'd love to hear from you! Please email me at [email protected]. Thanks! Simon

Hello Dears, Greetings, I am Nallusamy Anandaraja, working as Assistant Professor (e-Extension) in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. I have been specialized in ICT in Agriculture through which minimize the Gap between Research and Extension System. We are working with ICT tools for the benefit of sharing and knowledge building among scientist, students and extension officials. Pl. log on to our recently launched AGRI TECH PORTAL (agritech.tnau.ac.in). Another milestone initiative is Dynamic Market Information in collaboration with INDG. Regards anand

My name is Peter Burgess. My specialty is data and analysis more than it is technology ... and management information more than sophisticated statistical analysis. My interest is in easy data that can transform the performance of socio-economic activity to generate a lot more value adding than has been experienced over the past few decades in developing countries. Some parts of technology have followed Moore's Law ... with power doubling every 18 months and costs halving in the same time. Imagine this is agriculture ... but it is not happening. One way performance can be improved is by a whole framework of better metrics, data and analysis that allows better decisions. We have developed Community Analytics (CA) to do this ... very simple data about important things for each and every community ... trends over time ... comparisons with other placed ... all on top of 21st century technology. Looking forward to hearing what others are doing Peter Burgess Tr-Ac-Net.org Community Analytics.

Dear Colleagues May I reformulate the question! I find the project (pakissan.com) interesting, and I will argue that its primary success will be in making profit for the program and those that participate in the various aspects of the exchange. Is there any evidence that agricultural communities in Pakistan are making socio-economic progress ... how is this measured, community by community ... could they be using the concepts of Community Analytics (CA) to do the measurement? Are there village level data that show changes in socio-economic status of the community and the activities that have been instrumental in facilitating change. How much did the interventions cost? How much value adding for the community was achieved? It is only at this point that I would look to see whether or not the Pakissan project had a role in helping to facilitate change. In CA we look for very strong cause and effect links ... we are not directly interested in rather weak correlation. Having said that, we appreciate that the performance of an exchange may have very powerful correlation with the mobilization of fund flows for agriculture ... and we also want decisions about allocation of resources for agriculture to be based on good knowledge about the cost and impact of interventions and associated investments. [quote="tjkf"] Dear Mr Kasana, Your project (pakissan.com) sounds very interesting. Is there any concrete evidence to date that it has helped to improve the productivity of farmers in Pakistan? If yes, in what ways? Kind regards Torbjörn Fredriksson [quote="irfan.kasana"] Hi, I am Muhammad Irfan Kasana from Pakistan, working with Pakistan's first Commodity Exchange "National Commodity Exchange Limited" as Manager Research & Product Development & Operations. Core objectives to provide an Online Future Trading Platform wher farmers can directly trade what ever they produce right from there farm gate a true implementation of ICT. I have also developed the largest Agriculture web portal in Pakistan http://www.pakissan.com with more than 7000 subscribers and 2300 active forum members aiming "Connecting Agric-Community for better farming" We are at the moment working on E-Village concept and had already organized successfull conferences with in 3 provinces out of 4 in Pakistan. Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=185839181212 . Here we are striving for ICT & Associated Technologies to the door step of our rural community not only for Agriculture development but for Education, Health, and Social Activities. [/quote] [/quote]

Dear Sameera My interest is the development and deployment of Community Analytics (CA). The CA framework for metrics of socio-economic performance embraces all sectors including the very important agriculture sector. A large amount of data are needed ... the data need to be low cost and valuable. The problem of data overload must be avoided! We are moving towards a mobile phone solution ... SMS text messages and relational database connected using FrontlineSMS or something similar. The CA approach is more like accounting than surveys and statistics ... the data points are in themselves correct ... and they yield valuable information when they are organized in a rigorous manner. You can probably add significantly to what we are doing with CA ... I hope so! Peter [quote="sameera"] Hi All I am Sameera Wijerathna, Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Activist in Sri Lanka. Currently I am attached to Dialog Telekom (www.dialog.lk), a telecommunication company in Sri Lanka. Under the main theme of ICT4D, I am involved in different programmes and ICT for Agriculture is one of my key areas of interest. Currently I am working on my Masters Degree research - "Mobile Phone for Agricultural Development of Sri Lanka". Sameera. [url=]http://ict4d-in-srilanka.blogspot.com/[/url] [/quote]

Dear Colleagues There are many people and organizations doing good work in all areas of socio-economic development ... Simon Stumpf talks of some 2,500 social entrepreneurs in total and hundreds in rural development ... but I would argue that the numbers we do not know about are a lot bigger than those we know about. But it is worse ... there are a huge number of people that with a modest level of technical, monetary and practical assistance that would become entrepreneurs and make a huge socio-economic difference for themselves and for their communities. What we are trying to do with Community Analytics (CA) is to start looking at the community and what is going on in the community ... what could go on in the community ... and what organizations are in place to help with the needed interventions. CA has a community focus with the priorities defined by the community ... and the interventions driven by the community. CA does little more than (1) serve as a scorekeeping and (2) serve to collect and compile performance stats ... rather like any sports game of any importance! Peter [quote="simon.stumpf"] Hello! My name is Simon Stumpf and I work for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. We boast the world's largest network of leading social entrepreneurs - 2,500 total and hundreds doing innovative work in rural development. I am currently working with my colleagues in Sub Saharan Africa and India to find 100 new "Ashoka Fellows" with cutting edge and systems-changing new ideas in rural innovation and farming. If you are a social entrepreneur with a big, bold new idea or know someone who is, I'd love to hear from you! Please email me at [email protected]. Thanks! Simon [/quote]

I am Felix Bareeba a professor of animal science, Department of animal science, Makerere University.

My name is Mr. Alasow, I am a last year Master Degree student from Kasetsart in Thailand, doing Development Communication. My Thesis is on Rural ICT.

Hi everyone, I am Francisco del Pozo. an Agricultral Economist from the Foreign Agricultural Service of USDA and former staff member of e-agriculture innitiative in Rome (2007-2009). During my experience in FAO researching about the role of ICTs supporting the economic growth of small and medium agriculture producing organizations in the Andean region. I have developed a keen interest in the the use of ICT to faciilitate the dessimination of information to farmers in order to improve agricultural productivity and capacity building . Currently as part of the Office of Global Analysis; we are interested in to see what ideas will be expressed in the forum

Hi, my name is Ameha Woubishet and I am from Ethiopia. I work as a lecturer in the department of Information Systems in Haramaya University, one of the best agricultural universities in Africa. I have a bsc degree in Agricultural Extension and Msc degree in Information Science. I am hoping i will get more information about my proposal for a project on ICT adoption for Agriculture in Ethiopia. cheers

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Dear Participants, please tell us a bit about yourselves here. [/quote] I am Olalekan Rahman Oguntade, a principal Research officer with the Fish Technology/Biotechnology Department of the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Reseach, Lagos, Nigeria. I presently hold a Masters Degree in Zoology(Fisheries) with special interest in Fish Biotechnology with a PhD degree in Cell Biology and Genetics in view from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. My current research interest is in molecular characterisation of fin and shell fishes.

Hi, everyone. My name is Manuel Cervantes. Master in Agricultural Economics. I an academic professional working on food security and farming system in Nicaragua at the National University. I am interested in working with ICT from the University to improve agricultural prodiction in business crops.

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Dear Participants, please tell us a bit about yourselves here. [/quote] I am Zainul from Bangladesh.Working as technology transfer person. I find this discussion very useful for evaluation and formulation of ICT interventions for agricultural value chains. I welcome all participants for their enthusiastic contributions.

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Dear Participants, please tell us a bit about yourselves here. [/quote] I am Julito Aligaen from the Philippines, a freelance researcher on Climate Change for Education, ICT for Education, ICT for Development, curriculum developer and Workshop Facilitation.

Hello everyone. I am Holly Ladd with the AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology. We have been using ICT for health projects for over 20 years and are currently developing solutions for mobile data collection and information dissemination. I have a ken interest in ensuring that we are developing complementary, interoperable open source solutions for cross sector work. I fear that we will all stay in our silos and that this will cost far more money and pain for those implementing on the community level. I am here to learn about what is happening in this sector. I live in the US. We work globally.

Greetings to everyone. I am Tes Marquez and presently connected as academic librarian in agricultural institution. I believe that e-agriculture will help me in enhancing my knowledge in this new platform of learning. As information disseminator, I would like to source out more current news specifically in agriculture to share with our clientile. Our farmer clients, researchers, scientist, faculty and students will benefit from any information/knowledge that I will gain here.

Hi collegues. I'm Pretty Dube Chibangwa. Librarian at the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation, and Irrigation Development Central Library, Zimbabwe. Supervises sisteen agriculture college Libraries around the country. working towards copmuterising all these college Libraries.

Dear all, My name is Jean-Claude KAMWENUBUSA, young student in Burundi, within Lake University of Burundi, Faculty of Political, Social and Administration, Department of Communication and Sociology. I've been busy working on a project of the promotion of ICT and the creation University for International Development in Africa, in Burundi with International PH.D Professors and expert PH.D volunteer from United Nations Volunteer services for the Association for Solidarity, Health and Social Welfare (Association pour la Solidarité et l'Assistance Socio-Sanitaire in Burundi (ASASS-Burundi). I am also one of the Administration Council members of ASASS-Burundi. I am currently Director of Programs "DREKAJECINEX Entrepreneurship and ICT for Grasssroots Development. Our particular ICT interest is MOBILE PHONE, INTERNET AND AGROPASTORAL ACTIVITIES. I am very glad to continually be included into this professional team to exchange our daily experiences in ICT that improve our lives and save our daily FOOD: IMPROVE AGRICULTURE. Jean-Claude KAMWENUBUSA ASASS-Burundi Email:[email protected]

In your opinion has ICt been relevant in overall growth and development of lives of farmers?

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Dear Participants, please tell us a bit about yourselves here. [/quote] Dear All, I am Tasnim from Bangladesh.I am a student of an Agricultural University.The ongoing discussion on The role of ICT in agricultural value chain is very interesting.I thank all contributors for their spontaneous services for the development of agriculture as a whole. Best Regards, Tasnim

[quote="Lisa-Cespedes"] Dear Participants, please tell us a bit about yourselves here. [/quote] [color=]Dr. Khalil Alsharjabi & Greeting from Yemen Dear All; Greeting and early best wishes of a new 2010. I am Dr. Khalil M. Alsharjabi, Senoir researchers and DG technology Dissemination. Communication, information and extension education are my field of study, specialty and working area. I am currently working for the agricultural research and extension authority (AREA) in the Republic of Yemen. I hope that I would contribute to the present issue of the forum and learn from it as well. I wish the e-agriculture, this forum and participants all the success.[/img]

Dear all, Thank you for your introductions. It is great to see so many people willing to identify themselves and their interest in the role ICT may play in the agricultural value chain. I know many of you already, and look forward to getting to know those I am "seeing" here for the first time. e-Agriculture is a dynamic community and we work hard to compliment these online events with face-to-face events (when we appear at meetings organized by others). A summary of week 1 is being prepared, but please continue to comment on Questions 1 through 4. Clearly there is some way to go in agreeing on and realizing the potential of ICT in value chains. At the end of week 2 a final summary will be prepared, covering all your new comments, as well as Questions 5 through 7. If you are just joining us, please introduce yourself and jump into this interesting discussion. Best regards, Michael

Hi, I am Ryhan Ebad based out of Toronto, Canada. I am involved with the major Mission Mode Project (MMP) of Govt. of India under NeGP (National eGovernance Plan) with a great objective to make all the government services available to every citizen on India. Pilot project involves setting up about 100,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) nation wide with an idea of bridging the digital divide harnessing ICT. It is a concept similar that of Telecentres. I believe that this forum would focus on the issues of agriculture and developmental stand points of creating value chains. I look forward to learn and contribute to this forum based on all perspectives. With Regards, Ryhan

Dear all, This is Dr P S Janaki Krishna, working as an Associate Professor and Coordinator for Post Graduate Diploma in Managment (Biotechnology)in the Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad, India. My special interests include managment of technology and innovation, agricultural biotechnology, public private partnerships and biosafety and risk assessment relating to biotechnology. Firstly, I would like to congratulate e.agriculture network to start the discussion on a very contemporary and important topic wherein there is a role for many stakeholders. Looking forward to an interesting discussion, Janaki :lol: [quote="michaelriggs"] Dear all, Thank you for your introductions. It is great to see so many people willing to identify themselves and their interest in the role ICT may play in the agricultural value chain. I know many of you already, and look forward to getting to know those I am "seeing" here for the first time. e-Agriculture is a dynamic community and we work hard to compliment these online events with face-to-face events (when we appear at meetings organized by others). A summary of week 1 is being prepared, but please continue to comment on Questions 1 through 4. Clearly there is some way to go in agreeing on and realizing the potential of ICT in value chains. At the end of week 2 a final summary will be prepared, covering all your new comments, as well as Questions 5 through 7. If you are just joining us, please introduce yourself and jump into this interesting discussion. Best regards, Michael [/quote]

Dear All this is Eng. Mohamd Ali Atig, i am an activist for ICT role and enhancmenet in the sustainable development context. I am the founder and managing director at AGRIDEV-CTT we launched the first Vortal (Vertical market portal) for agriculture in Tunisia www.agridev.net and also the first marketplace in Tunisia for this fiel of activity www.agridev.biz. The ICT is proven that they have a large impact on population and social networker, so we can reach more and more target based on that technologies and dissimulate the best practices concepts and approaches. bests for all Eng. Mohamed Ali ATIG www.agridev.net www.agridev.biz