GFAR 2006 Triennial Conference

New Delhi, India Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhavan

Thursday 9th November 2006

A key challenge facing the global agricultural science community is to harness the potential of ever more powerful and sophisticated information technology to underpin the sharing and exchange of knowledge for the benefit of disadvantaged rural stakeholders.

Four major international institutions (GFAR, FAO, CGIAR, and CTA) have agreed to strengthen their collaboration in the area of information and knowledge exchange in agricultural research for development. Following an international technical consultation in October 2005 which they sponsored, they have agreed to form an alliance to streamline their resources to maximize the support that they can provide to national institutions and stakeholders.

Existing programmes and activities are being leveraged through one multi-stakeholder initiative with the key objective of building capacities at national level to establish national information networks and systems coherently and to create an interlinked global network of web-based openly accessible archives on agricultural technology. Three Task Forces have been formed with representation also from the regional organizations, and these are working to develop common standards, guidelines, and training resources which can be shared with national institutions.

Participants:

Dr. Adel ElBeltagy, Chairman, Global Forum on Agricultural Research

Dr. Alexander Muller, Assistant Director General, Sustainable Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Dr Frank Rijsberman, Director General, International Water Management Institute

Dr Hanjorg Neun, Director, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation