The Strategy - “Global Public Goods (GPGs): From Data and Information to Food”
Strategy Document
07/10/2007
I've copied this post here because it exemplifies that users are also producers of iGPGs, a very important relationship Author: Shambhu Ghatak Posted: Sep 21 2007 - 12:04 PM Subject: Agriculture and ICTs in India [quote]Agricultural Strategy for Eleventh Plan, Planning Commission, Government of India, has pointed out that with the availability of land and water fixed, the goal of 4% growth in agriculture can be achieved only by increasing productivity per unit of scarce natural resources through effective use of improved technology. It is planned that alternate delivery channels spanning Rural Knowledge Centres (RKCs), ICT-based extension, farmer-to-farmer extension, NGOs and the private sector should also be promoted simultaneously. The scheme--'Mass Media Support to Extension' aims to utilise the impressive infrastructure of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) for producing and broadcasting agricultural programmes for supporting other extension efforts. The National Agriculture Policy emphasizes upon the use of Information Technology (IT) for achieving a more rapid development of agriculture in India. The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, therefore, is in the process of preparing a National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A) for a more focused implementation of e-governance activities in the agriculture sector. In order to promote e-governance in agriculture at the centre and provide support to states/UTs for the same, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation is implementing a central sector scheme, "Strengthening/Promoting Agricultural Information Systems' during the Tenth Plan with a budgetary provision of INR 100 crore. The scheme has the following components: (i) Development of agricultural informatics and communication; (ii) Strengthening of IT apparatus in agriculture and cooperation in states and UTs (AGRISNET); (iii) IT apparatus at Department headquarters and its field offices; (iv) Agricultural Resources Information Systems (AgRIS); and (v) Kisan Call Centres. The Department has developed four portals and 40 websites covering both headquarters and its sub-formations under the component “Development of Agricultural Informatics and Communications". Some important portals which has till now been developed are: (a) AGMARKNET Portal ([url]http://agmarknet.nic.in[/url]); (b) DACNET Portal ([url]http://dacnet.nic.in[/url]); (c) DAC Portal ([url]http://agricoop.nic.in[/url]); (d) INTRADAC Portal ([url]http://intradac.nic.in[/url]); (e) SEEDNET Portal ([url]http://seednet.gov.in[/url]); (f) Agricultural Census Portal ([url]http://agcensus.nic.in[/url]). The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation is supporting e-governance activities at the state agriculture and allied departments through AGRISNET, a state sector mission mode project, which aims at providing improved services to the farming community using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Agricultural Resources Information System (AgRIS) project has been launched for implementation in two pilot districts of Rohtak (Dairy Typology) in Haryana and Banaskantha (Arid Typology) in Gujarat. Kisan Call Centres initiative aims to provide information to the farming community through toll-free telephone lines. Usage of GIS satellite imaging in India had been happening since a long time in India[/quote][/url]
Submitted by Kauser A. Malik on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 12:56
I am Dr. Kauser A. Malik, former founder Director of Natiional Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) at Faislabad and also former Chairman of PAk Agri Res Council (PARC). Curently am with Planning Commision. The GPG document has comprehensively indicated the difficulties in accessing the various CGIAR data bases in a consolidated manner. I have been interacting with several CGIAR centers and am aware of the immense scientific information available with CGIAR. There are basiucally four main cleints for this information. 1. Researchers 2. Policy makers 3. Extension workers/NGOs 4. Farmers. Any consolidated KM facility must take into account the needs of these end users. Researchers are looking for hard core scientific information which may help them further their research or improving a technology. Policy makers would be interested in knowing the usefulness of various interventions which will improve overall agricultural productivity; extension/NGOs would like to know different proven technologies for dissemination, lastly farmer is probably not aware of what is happening at CGIAR. Scientists at CGIAR should also be continuously trained and motivated to share information with NARS scientists. In the prevalent IPR scenario, this is becoming more and more complicated. Here I would like to quoite a sentence from your document. " A sensitivity raising activity is required to get across to CG staff thye fact that their work is the property of their Centers, that it is a Global Public Good and that they have a responsibility to make it available freely and widely." On the contrary, there has to be clear cut and transparent policy for sharing information so that contributions of every scientist are duly recognized. Have other thoughts. More later Kauser
Submitted by Ekanath Khatiwada on Wed, 09/26/2007 - 08:31
Dear Nancy. Sorry that, I could not response on time due to the connectivity problem. Regarding your following queries, now I am trying to response it Public/private partnership and their role in accessing and contributing to CGIAR iGPGs? Public private partnership is participations mechanism from all sectors (Government, private sectors and civil society) and they contribute their resources and energy jointly to make the system effective. Agriculture information is required for all sectors. Mostly in market information system, the private sector would be interested to invest. some time private sector service provides is more interested on service sector. The participation and contribution of NGO/Civil society is more important in information dissemination through community mobilization or social mobilization What might stimulate local ownership and investment in iGPGs? Designing the users' friendly information system, looking commercial viable options through the local community participation will stimulate local ownership. If there is good business plan, there will be high chance of local contribution or from private sector investors. How can universities and indigenous groups contribute to the iGPGs? If we are able to include in university course, basically in extension sector would be interesting. Some time online courses in university would be helpful. If university is able to connect with local community groups, it may help two way learning system With best regards, Ekanath Khatiwada Advisor, production, Income and Employment (PIE) SNV, Sudan
Submitted by P S Janaki Krishna (Dr.Mrs.) on Wed, 09/26/2007 - 11:32
Dear Nancy. Sorry, I could not log in earlier to this due to several other pressing assignments. Here are my views on some of the issues raised. Public/private partnership and their role in accessing and contributing to CGIAR iGPGs? Public private partnerships are crucial for the present day societies whose economy is sustained on knowledge base. However, for various reasons both CGIAR institutions /private companies are generally put up on high pedestals and are viewed as highly proprietary ones that cannot be reached very easily. Primarily this notion has to be ruled out by actions to strengthen these collaborations. CGIAR institutions have wealth of knowledge and private companies are known for converting knowledge into user friendly applications. Especially for ICT applications many public software and electronic companies have developed a number of tools and products that can be used for knowledge access and dissemination. A collaborative iGPG project may be envisaged with CGIAR (Knowledge source centers)- Private companies (Tools and products development for data sorting and dissemination) - Regional NGOs (linking people- the endusers/ farmers in the villages). What might stimulate local ownership and investment in iGPGs? Investing in capacity building of local people in application of agricultural knowledge for better agricultural practices. Establishment of locally owned "e-agricentres' in the villages and market yards and training the local youth and women in e-applications for smooth running of centres might lead to local ownership. How can universities and indigenous groups contribute to the iGPGs? They should also become partners in iGPGs projects as traditional state agricultural universities have lot of manpower and research and extension networks With best regards, P S Janaki Krishna Faculty Institute of Public Enterprise Hyderabad, India.
Submitted by Nancy White on Fri, 09/28/2007 - 00:32
These are great, specific examples. Thanks! This triggered two other questions for me. The first is where along the research process do people need access to the data. So for example, there are a number of stages in the research process such as: - Problem Identification; - Research Design; - Doing the Research; - Resuts and Outputs Dissemination; - Monitoring and Evaluation, Where do you think there is most value in opening access? Thinking about the partnership options you suggested, are certain partners interested in some stages more than others? I'll post my second question separately.
Submitted by Nancy White on Fri, 09/28/2007 - 00:32
Here is the second question you triggered! You talked about [quote]Investing in capacity building of local people in application of agricultural knowledge for better agricultural practices. Establishment of locally owned "e-agricentres' in the villages and market yards and training the local youth and women in e-applications for smooth running of centres might lead to local ownership.[/quote] This helps us think about the larger context of application of data. Is there something we should be paying attention to in larger agricultural development strategies that link things like the development of e-agricenters and the research community? How can that be done realistically, knowing that all parties are probably time poor? Is it a priority? Should there be more interaction between the researchers and farmers, or simply better flow of data?
Submitted by Ekanath Khatiwada on Fri, 09/28/2007 - 07:56
Another issue is agriculture data management. There are various links for agriculture data and information. How the make some standard and more authentic information data .There should be a clear links from central data bank to national e-information system and community e-agriculture centers. To make the system effective, all related sectors and stakeholders (researchers, community, and local /extension practitioner and data manager) should participate equally. Some time the flow of up ground level best practices will make very important contribution. In this context, the two way information flow needs to be ensured. Yes there is a need of regular interaction among all the stakeholders
Submitted by Nancy White on Mon, 10/01/2007 - 22:22
Important suggestions, Ekanath. You mention practices here - this might be an area others can chime in. What are the practices - from any of the stakeholder perspectives, that we might pay attention to? For example, what practices encourage useful participation (with respect to the note "stakeholders (researchers, community, and local /extension practitioner and data manager) should participate equally.") What does that participation look like? What makes it useful to any/all of the stakeholders? If any one has specific examples or stories to share, that is helpful.
Submitted by Nancy White on Sun, 10/07/2007 - 19:58
Here are some comments that came in via email from Paul Sillu, ICT Specialist, ABS TCM Ltd, Nairobi, http://www.eadairy.com http://www.abstcm.com [quote]Generally, information flow between researchers and the consumers have not been effective. The producers of the information had left it at technical level and the interpretation left out thus, the users; farmers didn't find it easy to use. Avenues between the researchers and farmers need to be opened more to ensure communication of feedback to the farmers (since the researches were carried out among them). Secondly, most of the communications has been top-down, farmers were not considered to be source of good information which researchers could use/ document and help pass them over to other users. For example, ethnoveterinary activities in Kenya revealed that farmers used some herbs to treat animal diseases as opposed to going to the vet shops to buy "expensive" drugs to treat their animals. This exemplifies that the farmers are in custody of some vital information which, if well tapped and communicated among other groups could be helpful. Access to the research findings in developing nations has been limited to those who are privileged to get the findings. Researchers should create avenues of meeting people and disseminating their findings and soliciting for feedback from the audience. In the fora with the audience, they will also get enlightened as to the user needs (education level which affects interpretation of the info, formats, user behaviours and also other unexpressed information needs). For example in Kenya, in efforts to inform farmers, ABS TCM Ltd. with other partners set up different information centres. These were done at "Successful farmers" homes/ farms. These farmers are always visited by others to learn from them, so the farmer would help in interpreting the info to them. Monitoring of the info needs revealed that farmers were at ease to access these materials from these strategic points. We could also get farmers feedback in form of questions, quest for more information etc. So the strategy to be set to bridge the info gap between the generators and users of the same need to revolve around the needs of the users. The demographic details of the target group studied and involve the target group also in the study, so that they feel they are part of the whole system. [/quote]