IAALD NEWS 
 Central and Eastern Europe
Role of CTA for the management of agricultural information and communication in the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries
Thiendou Niang, Head, Information and Capacity Development

 
    The Technical Centre for Agricultural and rural Cooperation, CTA was established in 1983 in the framework of the Lomé Convention, a cooperation agreement between the 70 African, Caribbean and pacific States and the European Union Member States. The aim of the CTA is to develop and provide services, which improve, access to information for agricultural and rural development and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, require, exchange and utilise information in these areas. recognising that many problems hinder the ACP countries' access to current and relevant information, CTA has set up various programmes focusing on strengthening facilities of information centres in ACP countries and providing information on demand. CTA 's partners and beneficiaries include agricultural and rural agencies both government planners and policy makers, research scientists and technicians, extension workers, trainers, farmers' cooperatives and associations. CTA's two principal aims are translated into four specific objectives. These objectives are:

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