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Promoting contact and exchange of experience among CTA's partners in rural development.
This covers CTA's seminar programme and the study visits programme
on priority issues in agricultural development.
CTA organises international and regional seminars in collaboration
with other international, regional and national development institutions
on topics relevant to priority issues in agricultural development in ACP
countries. In addition CTA sponsors ACP nationals to attend seminars organised
by other institutions in order to enable them to develop their professional
relationships and to exchange information. Topics addressed at recent CTA
seminars range from, New Information Technologies and networks, Cassava
Pest Management, Market orientation in ACP agriculture to Priority Information
Themes for ACP Agriculture.
CTA also coorganised seminars in collaboration with other international,
regional and national institutions on priority topics relevant to ACP countries.
These seminars complement the CTA seminars and are co-funded by CTA
and other organisations involved. CTA organises brief study visits for
ACP officials to provide first-hand experience of agricultural programmes
in specific fields.CTA commissions thematic studies and reports in order
to improve content availability and delivery of agricultural information.
Such studies assist in various areas in identifying information gaps, acquiring
and consolidating information on specific topics, identifying potential
partnerships, producing publications and structuring seminar programmes.
Providing information on demand
The principal activities are the provision of publications, radio and
audio-visual materials, literature services to researchers and the questions
and answer service.
CTA's information bulletin Spore, which appears in English and French,
is published every two months: a Portuguese edition appears under the title
Esporo. The Centre publishes the proceedings of its seminars and commissions
and publishes various studies, reports, bibliographies and directories.
Through its co-publications programme CTA co-publishes books and periodicals
on tropical agriculture and rural development with various partners. It
also supports the translation of books into English, French and Portuguese.
The Publication and Dissemination Department distributes CTA's publications
and co-publications as well as a small number of titles purchased from
other publishers. At present approximately 600 titles are available, 60
% of which are co-publications. The department maintains a mailing-list
of over 50.000 addresses, of which about 80 % are from ACP States; this
list is also used to distribute Spore and Exporo.
CTA's Selective Dissemination of Information service (SDI) allows
researchers to keep abreast of the latest scientific and technical information
relevant to their field of research by regularly providing relevant information
on specific topics. CTA provides approximately 950 SDI profiles, containing
about 150 references per user per year.
Requests for scientific and technical information from ACP nationals
are either answered directly by CTA and its regional offices, using the
Centre's access to major databases and libraries, or are channelled to
appropriate collaborating organisations. The QAS offers bibliographic searches,
supply of factual data or documents (originals or photocopies) and technical
advice on various agricultural or rural development topics from agronomy,
rural economics and sociology, food and nutrition to natural resources
and issues related to the environment.
Strengthening information facilities and capacities of ACP partners
This involves specific training activities, promoting the use of more
effective information technologies (CR-ROM databases, electronic networks)
and provision of specific reference materials.
Training workshops are regularly organised in agricultural information
management and agricultural communication (for example scientific and technical
writing, rural radio production) in partnership with relevant institutions.
Facilities and training in new information technologies, such as CD-ROM
databases and electronic networks, are made available to improve access
to agricultural information world-wide. At present CTA has been responsible
for a programme of 37 CD-ROM sites installations in 34 countries, within
agricultural information services in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
These sites received a microcomputer, software and printer and subscriptions
to a number of CD-ROM databases including TROPAG & RURAL, AGRIS, CAB
Abstracts, the CGIAR Compact Library and a CIMMYT germplasm database. Rural
radio is a key medium for informing and encouraging rural communities in
the ACP countries. CTA's support, launched in 1990, includes refresher
courses and the supply of technical information packages to producers of
rural radio programmes. CTA supports the production of audio-visual materials
on agricultural development themes.
Another feature of the CTA's programme is the Dissemination of Reference
Books on Agriculture (DORA) programme based on requests from its users
and the latest catalogues from the world's leading agricultural publishers.
The programme, initiated and funded by CTA, enables agricultural information
centres such as libraries and documentation centres to purchase the most
significant core agricultural reference books to support researchers, extension
workers, training officers and decision takers.
At present 70 agricultural training institutes benefit from the DORA
programme.
Designing strategies for improving agricultural information services
The role of CTA in this areas is to promote effective national policies
on agricultural and rural development which define information role and
capacity development relationships. These activities include studies, consultations
and workshops; evaluation and impact assessment work also contributes to
this objectives.
In recent years, CTA supported the preparation of proposal for integrated
agricultural information programmes in Africa and in the Caribbean as well
as networking activities in the Pacific. The Centre also initiated policy
studies and workshops on facilitating the publication of agricultural research
work, improving agricultural extension performance and strengthening small-scale
food processing enterprises.
All these activities are geared toward enhancing agricultural productivity
and making the best use of the natural resources of the ACP countries.
CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation ACP-EU)
CTA, Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen The NETHERLANDS
Contact: Dr. R. D. Cooke, Director, Telephone:+31(0)317467100 ,
Fax: +31 (0) 317 460067
E-mail: cta@cta.nl (replace first
"cta" by staff member's name where known) Website: http://www.cta.nl
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