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A WEB Portal on Ethiopian Agriculture: Experience of IPMS and MoA
Presented at the 19th Ethiopian Society of Animal production Annual Conference
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15-17 December 2011
Fanos Mekonnen
Improve access to information on value chain development
Bridging the Gap
‘it’s about time that we, those of us involved in the agricultural sector, manage the in-house knowledge we have on Ethiopian agriculture’
Knowledge management
‘creating an environment which encourages Knowledge to be:
created, shared , learnt, enhanced, organized and utilized in and outside of an organization.’
through producing
...a comprehensive, accurate, reliable and one stop source of information about Ethiopian agriculture
How?
Use ICT as a means for availing information on agriculture development and develop a web portal
Set up ‘knowledge centers’ that facilitate access of the web portal and other digital information sources
Result: KM framework developed
National Agricultural Information Resource Centre (NAIRC)
1. Infrastructure
2. Capacity development
3. Design and develop the Ethiopian Agriculture portal
4. Promote the web portal for increased usability
Infrastructure
Capacity Development
Capacity building of MoA human resource • Abroad- MSc level• On the job training on server
management, networking and software
EAP was developed and deployed
With a web interface of: simple, easy to use & maintain, attractive, ability to scale up & sustain
And also with complex and dynamic database
EAP is unique because…
• Focus Mainly on Ethiopia-specific
agricultural information
• Information sources in local languages are
available
• Information in fewer circulation are
scanned
EAP targets large audience Researchers
Extension
agents
Decision
makers
Stud
ents
Investors
Farmers
Use Knowledge centers to avail the EAP in districts, zones and regions
Dial Up, Broadband, CDMA / EVDO
Offline Versions of EAP
Promotion- through posters, flyers, seminars , workshops….
Documentation
Documentation cont.
Lessons and challenges
Technology catches up on you and leaves you behind, so don’t worry if you're e too early!
Smooth partnership and collaboration from the START is very crucial
Lessons and challenges cont ...
Proper incentives for contributors and content managers is crucial for sustainable contribution
An agricultural web portal requires a team of content managers for up-to-date and dynamic information and knowledge sharing
Major factors for Sustainability of EAP
Internet Content
human resource with the required capacity
