WorldAgInfo Workshop 1: Knowledge Systems
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The objective of this workshop hosted by the World Ag Info Project at Cornell University in Ithaca New York (September 30 - October 2 in 2007) was to identify near-term and medium-term opportunities for strengthening the content of agricultural education/curriculum and information systems to meet the needs of smallholder farmers in areas of the developing world where agriculture lags behind needs. Traditionally called extension, teaching and research, more recently these systems are recognized as complex, interactive activities of knowledge and technology use, generation and exchange among farmers, extension workers, teachers and researchers.
A major workshop objective was to identify the opportunity to give voice and access to smallholders and their information support systems, using new social networking tools for agricultural content development and creating a new agricultural education, information and training matrix.
The 40 attending participants were agricultural scientists with experience in South Asia and Africa, representatives of NGOs specializing in agricultural issues, agricultural ministry representatives, agriculture graduate students from Asian and African countries, agriculture faculty from African and Asian colleges/universities, private sector agriculture representatives, representatives of international agriculture organizations, accreditation specialists.
The materials provided here represent a portion of the outputs from that workshops. Additional materials including presentations and an archive of the project web site can be found on the Internet Archive here.
Recent Submissions
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Water Research & Education Network (WREN)
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)The international dimensions of water problems magnify the complexity of the water problem: increased use of water from the Blue Nile in Ethiopia creates shortfalls for farmers in the Sudan and Egypt and poor farming ... -
Developing Online and Offline Textbook Collections to Support Agricultural Curricula
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)In many agricultural universities and colleges in the developing world, students do not have adequate access to textbooks for their courses, and often have to wait in long lines at library reserve desks to borrow the few ... -
Preparing Universities in Africa and Asia for the New Agriculture
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)This project has four interconnected components: the first is helping universities and consortia of universities in Africa and South Asia prepare a landscape analysis of the magnitude and country-specific challenges and ... -
Market and Technology Led Curriculum Enhancement at Agricultural Education Institutions in Africa and South Asia
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)Fund partnerships between selected US and overseas universities to support the transformation of existing undergraduate curriculum in Africa and S. Asia through 1) the development of a series of curricular modules to address ... -
Developing the capacity of extension officers and their organizations to train, work with and support women farmers
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)Solution Scenario Concept: Extension systems’ widespread neglect of women farmers can be reversed through changes in attitudes of extension personnel and the structures and processes within agricultural institutions to ... -
Five Skill Sets to Develop the Capacity of Women Farmers to Demand and Use Extension Information
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)Solution Scenario Concept: Women smallholders in developing countries produce an estimated 70 percent of food from semi-subsistence farms, own 1% of land and receive 5-7 percent of extension services. Including women as a ... -
Off the Grid but in the Know: Advancement through Interactive Radio
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)Solution Scenario Concept: Many rural communities in Africa still do not have reliable cellular or electrical service, thus members of these communities cannot meaningfully use Information and Communication Technologies ... -
The Economic Empowerment of Women in Agriculture in Africa and South Asia
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007-10-26)Solution Scenario Concept: The male bias in the gender mix in Africa’s agricultural institutions is sobering. In ten countries in Africa, 90 percent or more of the agricultural scientists are male (Figure 1). Moreover, the ... -
Using Video to Improve Information and Knowledge Flows From and Among Smallholders
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)Solution Scenario Concept: Use the medium of video to convey local information, knowledge, experiences, and needs from small-scale farmers to a broad audience of extension workers, researchers, NGOs, policy makers, and ... -
Community Radio 2.0
World Ag Info Project Design Team (World Ag Info Project, 2007)Solution Scenario Concept: Extend the Web 2.0 paradigm to the use of Community Radio for the acquisition and dissemination of agricultural related information and education. The basic concept is to provide user generated ...