Information is for Development

摘要

In the 25 years since the publication of the first issue, Information Development has published many articles on agricultural information and information for rural development - possibly more than on any other single subject. It is appropriate, therefore, that we open the last issue of this 25th anniversary volume with a wide ranging and forward-looking paper on this subject, a special anniversary contribution by Editorial Advisory Board member Peter Ballantyne, President of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD), and Head of Knowledge Management and Information Services at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 'Accessing, Sharing and Communicating Agricultural Information for Development: emerging trends and issues' the author adopts an innovation systems approach to an analysis of the current landscape of agricultural information for development, highlighting a number of items which are - or should be - on the agenda of information and communication specialists working in this area. These include: the widening recognition of the value of farmer knowledge; growing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enable different agricultural development activities; concerns to ensure that public investments result in public goods whose benefits can travel; related efforts to ensure that agricultural content is open and accessible; the discovery and increasing use of a 'social' web; and some emerging new roles for agricultural library and information centres to meet changing demands. The recent food crisis has helped to push agriculture and food security back on to national and development agendas, and this paper is a timely call for greater investment in knowledge creation, information access, and the wider use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the agricultural sector in developing countries.