ICT/ICM for agricultural research for development in the Asia- Pacific region

The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 60% of the world’s population. it has about 65% of the world’s poor. This region faces unprecedented challenges of food insecurity, high rates of poverty and malnutrition. After the unprecedented success of the “Green Revolution” the region’s agriculture now faces challenges posed by climate change, loss of biodiversity, drought, desertification, increasing food prices and inefficient supply chains. There is now a demonstrable need for a new revolution that will bring lower prices for consumers (through reduced waste and more-efficient supply chain management), contribute to ‘smart’ agriculture, and motivate farmers (for example, through higher income) to increase their production. The information needs of farmers will only increase as they will have to make more and more complex decisions that impact the livelihoods of their families and society. Public and private sector actors have been searching for effective solutions to address both the longand shortterm challenges in agriculture, including how to address the abundant information needs of farming communities, strengthening value chains, innovating and participating in emerging markets. The application of contemporary digital technologies or information and communication technologies (ICTs) for information processing and communication as a suite of technologies is one of these solutions, and has shown considerable promise in agricultural applications in developing countries specifically. ICT in Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) has been identified as an important priority area in the Asia-Pacific region for sharing knowledge and information in order to strengthen research, extension and marketing systems. There are notable ICT attempts in agriculture and rural development which not only provide lessons on connectivity, device and application development but also offer more insights that indicate how ICM practices can help address agricultural challenges in developing countries. Each ICT initiative provides useful lessons with regard to agricultural content development, end-user needs, policy support, information and knowledge management, application of technologies, the role of institutions and their partnerships besides response to agricultural problems and socio-economic impact. This paper presents a synthesis of several previous reports/surveys in this region, published jointly by Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and current reports/literature and blogs and results of Internet research on trends emerging from this region. It concludes that it is important to recognize that production and dissemination of data, information and knowledge in AR4D cannot be regarded anymore as a subsidiary activity, secondary or tertiary to the mission and that policy-makers in AR4D should dispense with the notion that there are readily-available, prepackaged and off-the-shelf ICT solutions available for many challenges in data, information, knowledge management and sharing in AR4D. This needs research and innovation in applying ICTs. It recommends a set of directions that the region and countries can take to develop their capacity, content, connectivity/infrastructure and policies.