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CIARD – a global movement for opening agricultural knowledge

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The CIARD movement promotes openness and integration of knowledge for wider uptake and use in support of agricultural development. CIARD harnesses and reflects growing international interest in opening agricultural knowledge among all actors in food security and rural development, and a wide range of actors at global, regional and national levels have contributed to CIARD’s achievements since its inception in 2008.Representatives of some of more than 400 partner organisations agreed at a Global Consultation in April 2013 on a significant shift focus to support smallholder agriculture, and this proposal consists of several elements that will present CIARD and demonstrate its value in supporting “Opening agricultural knowledge”.Principal presentation by FAO/GFAR/CTA/CGIAR on “CIARD – a Global Movement on Opening Agricultural Knowledge” focusing on the following:

• the new CIARD model of inter-connected knowledge providers and brokers in innovation systems and value chains;
• the CIARD partners’ vision and how this is shared/promoted;
• elements of CIARD’s programme of work, including advocacy, the global registry, monitoring and evaluation, evidence, and the development of Pathways covering: (a) Organizational culture and capacity, (b) Availability and accessibility of information and data, and (c) Knowledge sharing. Several CIARD partners would form a panel in Chat Show format to share experience and learning around opening agricultural knowledge including:

• • Learning from regional experiences (FARA)
  • Learning from national experiences (Brazil, Madagascar)
  • Learning from local experiences (Pan African Farmers' Organization)

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The effectiveness of ICT-based engagement processes and partnership building

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ICTs have emerged as one of the promising areas in agricultural extension to reach large number of farmers. This type of extension system brings with it incredible opportunities and potentials of empowerment for farming communities. Therefore for ICT based engagement processes to take place, various factors have to be taken into consideration. These may include the Policy environment both at national and institutional levels. Engagement process also involve various actors. Institutional frameworks have to be in place to support these processes to occur. Additional factors to examine include the infrastructure, i.e telecommunications, the roads, electricity, transport sector and the markets. The knowledge and skills level as well as ICT ownership and usage. This paper will be discussed in the context of Integrated Soil fertility management –ISFM.

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The application of web24dev in e-extension services in the Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya

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Ministry of Agriculture has began an ambitious e-extension project for enhanced agricultural productivity and food security whose overall goal is to achieve enhanced agricultural productivity and food security by improving extension service delivery through adoption of e extension in the Ministry’s extension services. To this end the Ministry has developed a comprehensive e-extension curriculum and training manual to guide e-extension training of frontline extension workers. The use of web 24Dev tools has been included in the e-extension training curricular as a way of promoting e-agriculture by adopting cheap, accessible and effective tools to facilitate creation, sharing and transmission of agricultural information content and technology across the value chain. As part of the training package, the trainees are given a shock proof laptop, a smart phone and a data modem. the initial bunch of 50 trainees are expected to train their 600 collegues in the counties. eventually a total of 1500 training kits will be given to to the trainees. This is expected to lead to the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes both at the national and county levels.To achieve this the Ministry of Agriculture through its division AIRC partnered with Moi University with the support of CTA to train 25 trainers to undertake backstopping of the training in the Counties.