Report on
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AGRIS/CARIS IN THE 21ST CENTURYREPORT ON THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL CONSULTATION4 - 6 NOVEMBER 1996BOGOR, INDONESIA |
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[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7]
[Appendix 1] |
CURRENT SITUATION OF AGRIS/CARIS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFICSuaesi Valasi School of Agriculture, University of the South Pacific, Apia, Western Samoa BACKGROUND The University of the South Pacific was founded in 1968 and is now made up of 12 small island countries, ranging in size from Tokelau to Fiji, and including the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa. The economies of most of these countries are dominated by the primary sector agriculture, forestry and fisheries on both commercial and subsistence levels. Forestry sectors are sizeable in some countries. The University of the South Pacific was commissioned to serve the needs of the people of the South Pacific. To ensure this is achieved, the University set up Extension Centres in each country to deliver distance learning education for those capable, potential students who cannot afford to study full time on campus. There are three campuses of the University, the main campus in Fiji contains three schools. The campus in Vanuatu has the Law School, and the campus in Western Samoa has the School of Agriculture. This paper will focus mainly on the School of Agriculture which is also the co-ordinating centre for AGRIS and CARIS. The School of Agriculture (SOA) was founded in 1977 and has a research arm, the Institute for Research Extension and Training in Agriculture (IRETA). The SOA and IRETA aim to provide training through a wide range of formal and non-formal programmes. THE REGION'S INFORMATION NEEDS Since these countries are agriculturally based, it is important to provide useful and relevant information on agriculture, science and appropriate technology to assist national development. However, systems for the provision of such information are not adequate. In the region there are a number of organisations which are actively involved in the collection, recording and dissemination of information in all subject areas. These include the University of the South Pacific Libraries, South Pacific Forum Secretariat, South Pacific Commission, etc. In past years some surveys on agriculture and technological information needs of the South Pacific region were carried out by consultants. The highlights of these surveys recommended the establishment of a regional agricultural information service through a network of national agricultural agencies inputting their records to the regional centre. They also recommended the use of satellite communication for a question and answer service on agricultural matters. This has now been implemented in the Agriculture and Rural Development Information Network (ARDIN), administered by USP's Institute for Research Extension and Training in Agriculture. The ARDIN Centre is based in the Library of the School of Agriculture. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AGRIS/CARIS CENTRE In the late 1980s USP became an AGRIS/CARIS centre and agreed to contribute to the databases by collecting, processing and sharing agricultural information regionally and globally. The School of Agriculture (SOA) was made the co-ordinating centre with implementation by the ARDIN Centre the information arm of IRETA. Funds from USAID and CTA were used for computer equipment and a qualified information management staff member to implement the project. IRETA appointed Agricultural Liaison Officers (ALO) in each country, to be the link between farmers and information needs. One duty of the ALOs was to collect published and unpublished research and forward it to the ARDIN Centre for entering into the database and storing for easy retrieval and distribution. The ALOs distributed and collected the CARIS forms from researchers and forwarded them to the Centre for processing. Some training was provided in the region for AGRIS/CARIS data processing, but qualified staff changed. The Centre used PROCITE for processing CARIS data. By the end of 1992 more than 600 records had been entered. Much of this data was incomplete and could not be accepted by the CARIS Centre at FAO. Additionally, PROCITE is not compatible with the standard CDS-ISIS software used by CARIS. Records have since been completed and were entered into the main CARIS database in mid-1996. The aid money that funded this position ended in 1992 and the staff member left. The Centre is now staffed on an unqualified, temporary basis under the supervision of the SOA's Librarian. AGRIS and CARIS work has been dormant for some time and effort must be activated to move forward. Researchers have to be convinced of the usefulness of placing their research in this database and that, by doing so, the region benefits by receiving the CD-ROM databases distributed by FAO to the Co-ordinating Centres. CONSTRAINTS A number of problems restrict work on AGRIS/CARIS in our university region, including:
We lack qualified staff in our region to take up positions, such as the one that should look after the AGRIS/CARIS work. We are still relying on expatriates to fill some of our posts. In line with this is the lack of funds to send people for training and pay the appropriate salary to attract qualified people. Another constraint, affecting all countries, is small physical size and remoteness, separated from each other by vast areas of ocean. The consequences of this isolation are high transportation costs, infrequent air and sea services. Compounding their small size, many island countries have a narrow resource base and the coral-based islands such as Niue and Tokelau are virtually "resourceless rocks" lacking arable land for doing agricultural research. The CARIS forms we distribute to the ALOs and researchers are being simplified and when they are returned, the information is transferred to the more detailed form required by FAO. These forms are quite complicated and need proper training to complete. High staff turnover is a further issue. Most of the early staff who have worked at this centre received some training on using CDS-ISIS for this project. However, when one leaves, the next one needs to be trained. The use of PROCITE instead of CDS-ISIS has meant data needed re-formatting before acceptance for the main CARIS database. We are now again actively distributing CARIS forms to our researchers and hopefully they will complete and return them to us. The SCAINIP (Standing Committee on Agricultural Information Networking in the Pacific), of which most countries of the university are members, met in Fiji from 2-11 September 1996. AGRIS and CARIS was one of the topics discussed and the meeting concluded that this body will help the ALOs collect data and send to the Co-ordinating Centre in Apia, Western Samoa. CONCLUSIONS The AGRIS/CARIS project is currently not well-established in the region. A workshop is needed again for our region to train new staff and increase knowledge and experience with the software. Alternatively, we need an interface program to convert data from either INMAGIC or PROCITE, programs with which we are more familiar. We will continue to be part of AGRIS/CARIS and will try our best to improve contributions to this project. |