Scientific and Technical information

Cultivation of Cucumbers in a Greenhouse in Oman
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Infusing new information and knowledge in agricultural systems

Scientific and Technical information

There have been 3 distinct waves that have changed the flow of information and knowledge in human history and affected its course. The first was when human kind learned how to read and write through symbols, the second when printing was invented and the third was when text was made accessible universally through the Internet.

For agriculture, the first wave helped maintain records of farm produce and contributed to the formation of larger human societies. I am not sure how the invention of printing with movable type faces in its early stages contributed to the development of agriculture and progress in human society. It did bring greater access to information and there is evidence that agricultural processes and technologies were described in printed books of the medieval period. Apparently illiteracy among those who actually farmed was a constraint in spreading information through printed material. The western scientific revolution brought about the spread of information through printed letters, journals and books. Agriculture as a scientific discipline arose in the late 19^th century and the methods of sharing information and knowledge about this science were adapted without much distinction from those used in other sciences. It is how agricultural science now adapts to the Internet in sharing scientific and technical information that intrigues me.

The Internet, when it was developed, was primarily for scientific interaction. The first major change the use of computers and the Internet brought in sharing scientific information was through sharing documents electronically and the use of e-mail as a means of communication in scientific institutions. Associated with the sharing of documents electronically was the use of computers and tools in indexing and cataloguing information in the documents for easier and effective access.

In my opinion, the use of computers and the Internet in sharing agricultural science and technology information has lagged behind compared to its use, for example, for physics, mathematics, chemistry or even medical sciences. The reasons could be that investment in agricultural science was in the wane across the world and especially in the North when the use of Internet and computers was emerging in the 1990s. With reduced capacities and interest in agricultural science in Northern institutions of research and education, there was reduced interest to use the latest technologies to share information. It could also be that whenever there is a financial crunch, libraries and information management are among the first to face budgetary cuts. Agricultural science had severe financial investment reduction in the 1990s. It is also important to factor that the South, where agricultural research for development was targeted, had very poor computing infrastructure and even poorer Internet connectivity. There was little reason to invest in the use of the Internet in the South for science and technology especially agricultural science.

However, the electronic medium and use of the Internet in sharing agricultural science and technology has gradually increased. AGRIS, followed by a decentralized approach through WEBAGRIS by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), AGRICOLA by National Agricultural Library, United States of America are some of the prominent initiatives to enable access to agricultural science and technological information, especially peer reviewed scientific papers, electronically and through the Internet. AGORA and TEEAL are among initiatives to provide subsidized access to papers published in scientific journals online and through digital/electronic media to countries that cannot access scientific information due to its costs. Almost all major actors in agricultural research provide documents through their websites or what are called “Virtual Libraries”.

New trends observed in this area of agricultural information include the Open Archives Initiative which promotes publishing and access to scientific papers outside the conventional proprietary channels such as journals. At the FAO, this is planned under AGRIS. AGRIS is now much more than a catalogue, search engine and gateway to STI information. It also is active in facilitating application of norms and standards, providing tools, applications and agricultural ontology and thesauri.

To me the future sharing of scientific and technical information through the Internet will be through community of practices with list services, wikis and blogs. This may be in addition to the traditional scientific paper but I do not really see how the paper, which takes anywhere between 3 months to an year to publish, as a means to share STI information can survive in an age where information and data can be shared instantaneously among peer groups. This would have deep implications to information and communications management in this area. First of all the traditional librarians are a threatened species. Information specialists who can add value not only through collection, collation, cataloguing and indexing but also integrating information not only for scientists and teachers but a wide variety of actors in agricultural innovation will take their place. Scientists will need new skills to participate in online peer groups and communities of practices. They will need to have skills to partner and create trust among their peers online. They may have to expose their datasets and tools to their peers through the Internet. This will bring issues of safeguarding intellectual property, information systems security and coherence in sharing data. The information and communications management community in agriculture is not yet geared towards how they can support and facilitate these emerging trends in sharing agricultural and technical information.

Infusing new information and knowledge in agricultural systems

Urban Agriculture at Sanaá, Yemen

Infusing new information and knowledge in agricultural systems:

1. A Framework to analyse and understand the process

We need a framework to analyze and understand the infusion of new information and knowledge in agricultural systems.

I use a framework based on identifying who generates the information, the channel and the media through which information flows, the user of the information and the manager of the flow of information between the generator and user. The typology I use for agricultural information is crude as clearly defining the types of this information is difficult.

For me:

Scientific and Technical information is information generated by scientists/researchers and technical experts. It is usually published as scientific and technical papers through journals either in print or electronically. It is mostly used by other scientists and technical experts, teachers, students and extension agents. Information flow of this information is usually managed by information specialists and librarians. It is a well organized system with significant proprietary and commercial interests.

Research Data and information is information generated through experiments, surveys etc by scientists/researchers. It is usually collated in diaries and databases. This data in its raw form is rarely available to those outside the scientific/research team and used only by the team. However, with advances in modelling, simulation, bio-informatics and geo-spatial applications in agriculture, there is an increasing call for access to this data and information. It is usually managed by the scientific/research team that generates the data and information.

Research Management information is that used to manage research projects and includes information on resources available and used for the research project and what were the outputs of the project. This information is generated by the research project manager. Information at the Research Institute level which has several research projects may include information on the scientific and technical personnel involved, their expertise, the resources in terms of time, financial and human capacity involved, the infrastructure such as scientific equipment, laboratories and agricultural land used and the outputs from the research projects such as data sets, reports and scientific publications. In some cases the technology developed, the outcomes of the research and impact assessment is also documented at the project level. At the country level, information about the Institute such as its contact address, domain / mandate of activities etc is included in this category of data. This information is published in Institute and Country reports. The information is used by scientists/researchers and research managers. It is managed by research managers.

Information used for Extension and Education includes information used by extension agents in the field, farmers and producers and sometimes by rural youth studying vocational agriculture. It is generated at the interface between scientist/researchers and technical experts who generate technology and solutions to agricultural problems and those who have expertise in extension and education. This information flows through various channels including pamphlets, brochures, charts, posters, handbooks, audio and video programs, etc, through face to face interactions, print, radio, television, digital media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, the internet and cellular telephony. This information is usually managed by extension agents and agricultural communication managers.

Market related information is information generated and used to effectively produce and market an agricultural product till it is consumed. It includes a wide variety of information related to inputs needed for production of the commodity, information on what to grow, when, how, where, quality and safety standards, consumer preferences, how the produce is to be harvested, processed, packaged, transported and marketed, the potential yields and the financial returns, current and forecasted market prices. This is the most complex of information needed in agricultural systems and is generated by a vast array of actors in agricultural market and value addition chains. This information flows through a wide variety of channels and media including reports, bulletins, guides, web sites etc, through face to face interactions, mass media such as newspapers, radio and television, telephony and the Internet. This information is increasingly being managed by organizations in the public and private sector.

Infrastructure for information management and communications in agricultural systems is an important issue. For me, this infrastructure includes the hardware, the software such as tools and applications, the skills needed for information and communications management and the connectivity for information flows, which includes the availability of channels such as radio and television stations, websites and media.

In my future blogs, I shall try and use this framework to look at current and emerging issues related to each of these types of agricultural information.

Food, Agriculture and Information

Food, Agriculture and Information

A Small Holder Farmer's Field in Aravalli Hills in Rajasthan India

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Steeply rising food prices have caused protests and riots in more than 30 countries in recent months. This has alarmed not only the world media but also national politicians and global leaders who all of a sudden talk in public about a topic they all shunned in the past, agriculture.

Various causes have been attributed for public consumption to the rise in food prices across the world. These include drought in Australia and North America, converting corn into bio-fuel for automobiles, rising consumption of growing populations, increase in incomes in countries with rapid economic growth for livestock products which are produced by feeding animals with food grain.

However these causes are not fully attributable to the food crises. Take rice for example. Drought may have affected rice production in Australia and, to some extent, global rice availability for export. Rice is still not a feedstock for Biofuels and the per capita consumption of rice cannot have doubled in the same time period that rice prices have doubled. Rice polish and bran are fed to animals, not rice grain.

Some agricultural experts have pointed out that agricultural productivity has not increased in rice producing areas. Some state that there is stagnation in agricultural productivity and some alarm us with statements about falling productivity. As data indicates, this may all be true.

We must try and look at the root causes of why global and national food availability is now in a crises. One of them could be that an agriculture that was high input based was brought about in the last century. This did result in high outputs and a sense of security regarding food availability but this approach may have been an unsustainable in the long run.

The rises in the cost of oil and fossil fuels in recent months have forced a rise in fertilizer, pesticide and energy costs for agriculture. For millions of small farmers in the main rice and wheat growing areas of Asia who have changed to the high input-high output systems it is just not economical now to cultivate these crops.

In the so called green revolution in agriculture in Asia, agricultural growth was supported through a policy of subsidized input of fertilizers, pesticides, water through irrigation or cheap energy for irrigation pumps, seeds, assured prices and free extension which provided new information and knowledge for the new high input-high output agriculture. This helped Asian farmers cope with the high cost of inputs and make farming a sustainable livelihood. In the 1990’s, under pressure from global policy institutions, this support structure for farmers was slowly dismantled. Among the earliest of the structures to deteriorate was the agricultural extension.

Global policy institutions also embarked on propagating more open global trade in agricultural commodities forcing a highly competitive, market oriented agriculture. This brought to the fore the need for new information to compete because markets are not only exchanges of commodities but also information about the commodities. Unfortunately for the millions of farmers, mostly small holders, in countries whose economies were largely agricultural and who had not invested in telecommunication and enabling access to information for farming, this was the initiation of a death knell for their livelihoods. Starved of the required information and knowledge to participate in a globally competitive agricultural market, these farmers have tried to adjust their productivity to what they could cope with and try and sustain their livelihoods and to some extent their own food needs. But this is a losing battle for them.

Stagnant and decreasing productivity is the first indicator of a global brewing storm or farm, rural and national food crises. In some countries, such as in India, large scale rural to urban migration with farmers opting out of agriculture, fallow lands and farmer suicides are symptoms to increasing magnitude of a highly diseased agriculture.

The healing of agriculture in my humble opinion has to include how new information and knowledge required to make agriculture sustainable in the broadest meaning of the word can be infused in agricultural systems across the world. I believe that agriculture development will continue in a path that is increasingly market oriented and globally competitive. And I also believe that agriculture will increasingly become, because of this market oriented path for its growth and development, knowledge intensive. Access to information and the ability to learn from it by those involved in agriculture and its progress and development has to be a part of the solution. In my future blogs, I shall try to relate my learning and experience on how new information and knowledge can be infused in agricultural systems so that they can be more productive and profitable to all involved in agriculture and food production.