A Web portal on Ethiopian agriculture: Experience of IPMS and MoA

A WEB Portal on Ethiopian Agriculture: Experience of IPMS and MoA

Presented at the 19th Ethiopian Society of Animal production Annual Conference

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 15-17 December 2011

Fanos Mekonnen

Improve access to information on value chain development

Bridging the Gap

‘it’s about time that we, those of us involved in the agricultural sector, manage the in-house knowledge we have on Ethiopian agriculture’

Knowledge management

‘creating an environment which encourages Knowledge to be:

created, shared , learnt, enhanced, organized and utilized in and outside of an organization.’

through producing

...a comprehensive, accurate, reliable and one stop source of information about Ethiopian agriculture

How?

Use ICT as a means for availing information on agriculture development and develop a web portal

Set up ‘knowledge centers’ that facilitate access of the web portal and other digital information sources

Result: KM framework developed

National Agricultural Information Resource Centre (NAIRC)

1. Infrastructure

2. Capacity development

3. Design and develop the Ethiopian Agriculture portal

4. Promote the web portal for increased usability

Infrastructure

Capacity Development

Capacity building of MoA human resource • Abroad- MSc level• On the job training on server

management, networking and software

EAP was developed and deployed

With a web interface of: simple, easy to use & maintain, attractive, ability to scale up & sustain

And also with complex and dynamic database

www.eap.gov.et

EAP is unique because…

• Focus Mainly on Ethiopia-specific

agricultural information

• Information sources in local languages are

available

• Information in fewer circulation are

scanned

EAP targets large audience Researchers

Extension

agents

Decision

makers

Stud

ents

Investors

Farmers

Use Knowledge centers to avail the EAP in districts, zones and regions

Dial Up, Broadband, CDMA / EVDO

Offline Versions of EAP

Promotion- through posters, flyers, seminars , workshops….

Documentation

Documentation cont.

Lessons and challenges

Technology catches up on you and leaves you behind, so don’t worry if you're e too early!

Smooth partnership and collaboration from the START is very crucial

Lessons and challenges cont ...

Proper incentives for contributors and content managers is crucial for sustainable contribution

An agricultural web portal requires a team of content managers for up-to-date and dynamic information and knowledge sharing

Major factors for Sustainability of EAP

Internet Content

human resource with the required capacity

[email protected]

www.eap.gov.et