Forums Archive

In its simplest form, knowledge sharing is about starting constructive dialogue. The e-Agriculture Forum is the heart of discussion for Community members. Topics are demand-driven, and lead by partner institutions who specialize in different areas of e-agriculture. All Community members are invited to participate in all forum activities.

Here in the Forum Archives you can review past forums, and find links to the Key Topics that have resulted from past forums and continue to be enriched by member input.

At this time we are still migrating all the past forums from the old platform to this new platform. Some forums have already been migrated and are hyperlinked below. 

October 2010: Learning Repositories in Agriculture Food & Environment: Quality Promises & Considerations in Learning Repositories and Portals
6-29 October 2010. This AgLR-Task Force and e-Agriculture Community e-conference (AgLR 2010) initiated a dialogue to seek a common understanding of the quality considerations for all the stakeholders in learning repositories and portals on agricultural and environmental issues. Stakeholders involved in repositories and portals on agriculture, food and the environment were invited to join this discussion and share guidance, standards, technologies, tools, recommendations, and good practices for:
- Building quality into the creation process of Learning Resources;
- Creating processes & tools to ensure quality in the resource annotation, curation and preservation life cycles;
- Setting up quality processes on a repository level;
- Defining quality criteria and processes on a web portal level;
- Assessing the quality of Learning Resources;
- Taking advantage of users’ feedback as a component of the quality status of either a repository or a portal.

August 2010: The Role of ICTs in Agricultural Value Chains (in Spanish)

26 July-26 August 2010. e-Agriculture, in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) hosted an online forum in Spanish looking at the opportunities and challenges of ICT when applied to agricultural value chains. Focusing on rural development, this event provided a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge on best practices, expectations and challenges, with participants representing both public and private sectors. It is clear that the main role of ICT in the improvement of agricultural value chains is to increase product value and minimize production costs, thereby promoting rural development and raising the living standards of rural communities.

July 2010: Gender, ICTs and Rural Livelihoods
5-16 July 2010. The e-Agriculture Community and GenARDIS hosted a virtual forum to explore some of the challenges faced when implementing projects aimed at empowering women in ICT in relation to rural livelihoods. Subject Matter Experts were available during the forum to share their insight and covering also the area of capacity building.

December 2009: The Role of ICTs in Agricultural Value Chains (in English)
7-18 December 2009. The forum discussed the key opportunities and challenges of ICT interventions in agricultural value chains with a special focus on the most beneficial interventions in rural areas. It proved to be a key opportunity for knowledge sharing on good practices, presenting expectations of future challenges and outcomes, and considered the critical role of policy makers, rural service providers, and the agricultural community at large.

April 2009: Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas (Forum in Spanish)
20-30 April 2009. As a strategic follow-up to the e-Agriculture panel discussion held at the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress (Japan, August 2008) and to the English language version of the online forum (November 2008), this forum promoted extensively through Latin American partners, development networks, and community members. The forum brought approximately 450 new members to the Community, with a total of 266 messages posted in the forum.

November 2008: Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas (Forum in English)
17-28 November 2008. This Forum examined the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile telephony, and looked at some examples of interesting initiatives and good outcomes from around the globe. Mobile phones are the success story of bridging the rural digital divide, bringing tangible economic benefits and acting as agents of social mobilization through improved communication. Over 150 community members from over 50 countries participated in this forum.

March 2008: The Role of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Asia.
10-28 March 2008. Sponsored by Katalyst and FAO. Moderated by Katalyst, a multi-donor funded market development project implemented by Swisscontact, the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation and co-implemented by GTZ-International Services. A Global Knowledge Partnership Event. 

Areas which were explored included: The scope of Public Private Partnerships to implement e-Agriculture successfully; Understanding the major & common constraints in PPP based on past experiences and current practices; Suggestions and solutions to overcome the challenges and focus on bringing practical solutions; and the roles of stakeholders: government, private sector, and others.

November 2007 Forum WorldFish Center - Using ICT in Fisheries & Aquaculture programmes
24th November to 7th December 2007, the WorldFish center held an e-consultation on “Using ICT in Fisheries & Aquaculture programmes”.

The WorldFish Center is a non-profit organization that focuses on alleviating poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture. WorldFish is one of 15 international research centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In 2006 the FAO commissioned a study into the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in small-scale fisheries. The research found that the full range of ICT tools, from specialist fishing technologies to media technologies and general purpose ICTs, are being used across the different fisheries value chains (marine, inland and aquaculture). A database of 54 Case Studies was developed for the research and a summary of the findings can be found at

September 2007 Forum (CGIAR) OPENING ACCESS TO CGIAR RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE: From Data, Information and Collaboration to Food
From 12 September to 3 October 2007, the objective of this Forum was to make it easier for CGIAR staff, partners and potential partners to access, use and add value to the research and to the scientific outputs of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

"If a tree grows in the laboratory, will the poor eat its fruit?" A discussion on"Global Public Goods (GPGs): From Data and Information to Food" was held by the ICT-KM Programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The ICT-KM programme promotes and supports the use of information and communications technology (ICT) and knowledge management (KM) to improve the effectiveness of the CGIAR System's work on behalf of the poor in developing countries

July 2007 Forum "Responding to Demand - The focus of e-Agriculture"
9-21 July 2007. Community members from over 25 countries participated. July's Featured Forum built on the results of the 2006 e-Agriculture survey, and focused on respondents' experiences with innovative e-Agriculture systems and ways to make e-Agriculture systems and their content demand driven. The results of the Forum were presented at e-Agriculture week from September 21-28.