Information Society Watch

2003, Ajit Maru and Karin Ehrle, International Service for National Agricultural Service

This paper explores whether the North and the South will have different frameworks and evolutional paths for ICT use in agricultural research and development. The study is informed by the iNARS initiative, which consisted of discussions in an electronic forum, and country reports on ICT use from developing and developed countries. It compares and contrasts these elements in the context of agricultural research in the North and the South, and shows that new intermediaries are needed to maintain linkages between research and practice. While the use of computers in the South for research is developing, the ability to connect to the Internet is still extremely poor, affecting access to information and the ability to create partnerships. Connecting farmers to innovation in agriculture in the North has been accomplished through farm organizations and public sector agencies. In the South, several governments, such as Vietnam, Thailand, India, and South Africa, have initiated activities to link agricultural research to farmers through the use of new ICT (Adapted from authors).

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