Monge, Fernando (author / Head, Documentation Services, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia) and Head, Documentation Services, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1981
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 76 Document Number: C04007
Notes:
AGRICOLA IND 8805341, In: Agricultural information to hasten development : proceedings of the VIth World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists; 1980 March 3-7; Manilla, Philippines. Los Banos, Philippines : Agricultural Information Bank of Asia, 1981. p. 267-276
4 pages., Via online journal., Raising the productivity of smallholders
is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and
improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most
developing countries. This increased productivity is
essential to both household food security and to
agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger
economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of
constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall,
and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to
productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also
vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture,
and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such
as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on
the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving
the information, communication, transaction, and networking
elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
Paper presented at the IAALD Regional Conference, Strategic Issues in Agricultural Information; 1988 November; Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, A description of the present situation in the field of food and agricultural information is given, based on the historical development within last thirty years, with special reference to the financial development. The relationship between information in industrialized countries is emphasized and examples are given that demonstrate the possibility to improve the exchange of scientific information. (original)