La FAO, le SMSI et la cyberagriculture

Anton Mangstl évoque le rôle potentiel de la cyberagriculture pour combler la fracture numérique rurale

FAO, WSIS-2 and e-agriculture

Anton Mangstl talks about how e-agriculture can contribute to bridging the digital divid

IT in Rural Areas

Many agree that knowledge is central to development, and that there are considerable resources of knowledge and information that could be made available to assist poor people deal more effectively with the root causes of their poverty. The new information and communications technologies (ICT), and increased priority and resources for information exchange, have the potential to improve the access to, and benefits from, this accumulated knowledge for the rural poor, as well as creating a more informed policy environment. However, a “digital divide” separates those most in need from the world’s information and knowledge resources. The “Programme for Bridging the Rural Digital Divide to reduce Food Insecurity and Poverty” makes the case for a new strategic Programme through which FAO would facilitate a global partnership to address the rural digital divide. The Programme would strengthen human and institutional capacities to harness information and knowledge more effectively for agricultural and rural development. The proposal responds to a real gap, not yet addressed in a cohesive way by the international development community. The rural digital divide is not only a problem of infrastructure and connectivity, but a multi-faceted problem of ineffective knowledge exchange and management of content, lack of human resources and institutional capacity, compounded by an acute scarcity of financial resources

Emerging issues, priorities and commitments in e-agriculture

Dr. Anton Mangstl, Director of FAO's Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division, explains that only through the commitment of policy makers can we truly realize the benefits of e-Agriculture for the developing world - and in particular, the rural poor

Land- und Ernährungswirtschaft in Mittel- und Osteuropa

The role of information systems in food security in transitional countrie

Importance of Agricultural Information in the Global Context

Contributing institution: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsDr. Mangstl is a specialist in Information and Knowledge Management as well as Agronomy. Prior to joining FAO in 1996, he was Director of the Centre for Agricultural Documentation and Information (ZADI) Bonn, Germany. Earlier, he was Deputy to the Head of the Working Group on Crop Production and Informatics, Center for Life and Food Sciences in Agriculture, Freising-Weihenstephan (Germany). Dr. Mangstl serves as Director, Library and Documentation Systems Division, General Affairs and Information Department, for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is the FAO Focal Point for participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and related follow-up (C.7 ICT Applications, E-Agriculture). Dr. Mangstl is in charge of the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT), established by FAO in recognition of the intrinsic value of information in fighting global hunger and achieving food security. Through the WAICENT framework, FAO is able to effectively disseminate the Organization's vast wealth of information on food and agriculture. The work of Dr. Mangstl's Division on WAICENT includes capacity building and partnership initiatives which promote best practices in information management, sharing information management systems and tools, e-learning modules for capacity building through the Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) initiative and proactively participating in FAO's interdepartmental WAICENT Committee. Dr. Mangstl has been involved in the Organization's latest endeavour to effectively transform FAO into a Knowledge Organization. This transformation allows the Organization to learn from and give a voice to the agricultural community regarding a wide range of issues affecting Food Security and Agricultural Production today. In 2001, Dr. Mangstl was awarded Honorary Professor by the National Agriculture University of Ukraine, Prof. h.c. (UA). Further information: http://www.fao.org/gi/gil/about_en.asp - GIL Divisional Website, http://www.fao.org/rdd/ - Bridging the Rural Digital Divide, http://www.imarkgroup.org/ - IMARK, http://www.fao.org/KnowledgeForum/index_en.htm - Knowledge Foru

WAICENT, World Agricultural Information Centre: FAO's information gateway

The specific components which make up the World Agricultural Information Centre at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), are described in this paper. WAICENT comprises three principal elements which are interactive and complementary: FAOSTAT, for the storage and dissemination of statistical information, FAOINFO, which covers hypermedia information, and FAOSIS which covers very specialised information systems

The New Direction for FAO`S Information Services. The world Information Centre (WAICENT)

The specific components which make up the World Agricultural Information Centre at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), are described in this paper. WAICENT comprises three principal components which are interactive and complementary: FAOSTAT, for the storage and dissemination of statistical information, FAOINFO, which covers hypermedia information, and FAOSIS which covers very specialized information systems. WAICENT has brought a new strategic information approach to the Organization vis-a-vis information production and delivery, along with two fundamental paradigm shifts - paper versus electronic distribution and distribution versus central storage. In this paper particular emphasis is given to the public information initiatives under WAICENT; the specialized information services provided by the various departments and delivered through WAICENT; the full-text document storage and retrieval system study that is part of the initiative; and the Virtual Library Project

The World Agricultural Information Centre of FAO

WAICENT - World Agricultural Information Centre - has been operating since the beginning of this year under the auspices of the Information and Documentation Systems Division (GIL) in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The New Direction for FAO`S Information Services. The world Information Centre (WAICENT)

The specific components which make up the World Agricultural Information Centre at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), are described in this paper. WAICENT comprises three principal components which are interactive and complementary: FAOSTAT, for the storage and dissemination of statistical information, FAOINFO, which covers hypermedia information, and FAOSIS which covers very specialized information systems. WAICENT has brought a new strategic information approach to the Organization vis-a-vis information production and delivery, along with two fundamental paradigm shifts - paper versus electronic distribution and distribution versus central storage. In this paper particular emphasis is given to the public information initiatives under WAICENT; the specialized information services provided by the various departments and delivered through WAICENT; the full-text document storage and retrieval system study that is part of the initiative; and the Virtual Library Project