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News about
Rice and People
19
September 2002
Online
information service launched for the international rice industry
International
Rice Congress 2002, Beijing -- The international rice industry now
has online access to the latest farming and production information.
The world's
first digital extension service for the rice industry, the Rice
Knowledge Bank, was officially launched at the International Rice
Congress in Beijing, China, on 18 September by the honorary chairman
of the congress, Dr. Song Jian. Developed by the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI), the Rice Knowledge Bank features the
institute's 42 years of training, educational and research information.
IRRI Director
General Ronald P. Cantrell said the Knowledge Bank was expected to
play a vital role in closing the "yawning gap between rice
research and impact, especially for the world's millions of poor rice farmers."
"Not only
is it one of the world's first free digital extension services for
those who provide information and support for rice farmers -- such as
NGOs -- it is also the first comprehensive, digital rice-production
library containing an ever-increasing wealth of information on
training and rice production," said Dr. Cantrell.
"For too
long, rice farmers and those who work so hard to help them improve
their lives have been deprived of the technologies and knowledge that
farmers in other industries take for granted," he added.
"Finally, with the Rice Knowledge Bank, we can provide to those
who work with rice farmers free access to the very latest in research
and information."
Dr. Cantrell
said that, while it was well recognized that the Internet was of
little use to most rice farmers -- many of whom are without access to
even the most basic infrastructure -- digital information could still
be used by those who worked with farmers.
The Rice
Knowledge Bank provides this content in a breakthrough format, which
sets a new standard in access to knowledge and information on rice
production. Taking the very latest and best ideas from the private
sector's work in this area, the Knowledge Bank is already providing
government extension officers and NGOs all over Asia -- as well as
any others who are interested -- with unprecedented access to rice
knowledge and training information.
The Knowledge
Bank is a dynamic Internet portal that aims to be the world's main
rice training and knowledge repository.
By capturing
IRRI's 42 years of rice research and educational information in a
digital format, the Knowledge Bank allows this data to be shared,
searched and used in any part of the world that has basic Internet connectivity.
For remote
areas -- such as rice villages in developing countries -- where the
Internet is not easily accessible, the Knowledge Bank is built to run
from CD-ROMs and can be printed using a concept known as
single-source publishing.
The Knowledge
Bank content is classified into five categories:
1. KnowledgeBytes
2. e-Learning
3. Reference Guides
4. Decision
Support Tools
5. Biological Databases
Within each
category, the content is structured as reusable learning and
information "objects." This means that the objects
contained within one category can be cross-referenced and shared with
items from other categories. For example, while the rice
grain-quality course is located within the e-learning category, it
reuses multiple objects from the Knowledge Bank, including the
decision-support tool TropRice and various other reference materials.
At the
institute level, scientists can use the Knowledge Bank to prepare
materials for their own local training courses. Rather than find new
material each time, they can search the Knowledge Bank for topics,
see what has already been written, then make any required
adjustments. When their training course is complete, their materials
can then be uploaded to the Knowledge Bank's training course
materials area for use again at any time in the future. This effort
can save hours of preparation time for future courses and ensures
that training messages are delivered consistently.
"Already,
we are seeing materials being freely contributed to the course
materials site by numerous IRRI scientists and their partners such as
CAB International, the University of Queensland, and the Royal
Agricultural College of Cirencester," said Albert Dean Atkinson,
the Knowledge Bank concept developer. "In the rice grain-quality
course section, students' feedback and input and instructor's
comments concerning grain quality are captured and stored and can be
searched and accessed by anyone who needs to do so.
"The
collection and transformation of this tacit knowledge into explicit
knowledge is another first step for IRRI and the 15 other Future
Harvest centers of the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research with regard to true knowledge management,"
Dr. Atkinson said.
Another new
concept that has grown out of the Rice Knowledge Bank is digital
extension workshops being offered at IRRI for NGOs, national
agricultural research and extensions systems, farmers, and other
partners and rice industry stakeholders.
The workshops
focus on how to use the Rice Knowledge Bank to build rice knowledge
capacity that allows participants to provide the very latest rice
production advice for themselves or their constituents.
"The Rice
Knowledge Bank will be a big help to our organization because it is
very informative and easy to use and will be a big help to our
extension workers in the field who are attending to the different
problems of Philippine rice farmers, especially in such areas as the
latest principles and practices of farm management," said Anita
V. Antonio of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
Prior to its
official launch in Beijing, the Knowledge Bank has been live on the
Internet since May 2002 and has attracted over 350 registered users.
The Knowledge Bank developers also hosted its first e-learning course
in July 2002 involving Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The second
e-learning course, e-Learning for Development, was held on September
2 with 26 participants from around the world.
"There
was a great deal of interest in this course, as it was the first of
its kind for the development community," said Shawn Golinowski,
the Knowledge Bank instructional designer. "It's a 'how-to' for
on-line learning, a topic that many people seem to talk about but for
which few actually have anything to show."
Anyone can
visit the Rice Knowledge Bank at <http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org>.
# # #
IRRI is the
world's leading international rice research and training center.
Based in the Philippines and with offices in 11 other countries, it
is an autonomous, nonprofit institution focused on improving the
well-being of present and future generations of rice farmers and
consumers, particularly those with low incomes, while preserving
natural resources. IRRI is one of 16 Future Harvest centers funded
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR), an association of public and private donor agencies.
For more
information, visit the websites of the CGIAR (www.cgiar.org) or
Future Harvest (www.futureharvest.org). Future Harvest is a nonprofit
organization that builds awareness and supports food and
environmental research for a world with less poverty, a healthier
human family, well-nourished children, and a better environment.
Future Harvest supports research, promotes partnerships, and sponsors
projects that bring the results of agricultural research to rural
communities, farmers and families in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
# # #
For
additional information, contact Duncan Macintosh, IRRI, DAPO Box
7777, Metro Manila, Philippines; telephone (63-2) 845-0563 or (63-2)
844-3351 to 53; fax: (63-2) 891-1291 or (63-2) 845-0606; email: d.macintosh@cgiar.org
Web (IRRI):
http://www.irri.org ;
Web (Library):
http://ricelib.irri.cgiar.org ;
Web
(Riceweb): http://www.riceweb.org;
Web
(Riceworld): http://www.riceworld.org .
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