Making Agricultural Training and Education Resources Accessible

Project Title: Online Learning Resources Objective: Often, learning institutions in developing countries struggle to maintain libraries and resources in agriculture and natural resources management and often work in isolation from international research institutes. As major developers of research and training, CGIAR centres are collaborating to centralize learning resources in support of open access and knowledge sharing to strengthen the teaching and communication capacities of these learning institutions. Supporting Agencies: The World Bank Project Directors: Jan Beniest, Head of Training, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF); j.beniest@cgiar.org Thomas Zschocke, Head of Training, Potato Research Institute (CIP); t.zschocke@cgiar.org The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research is an international organization, providing global public goods through agricultural research to alleviate poverty. Within this group it is recognized that training and education are integral to successful national agriculture and natural resources market development and local economic sustainability. The project seeks to extend the dissemination of CGIAR agricultural and natural resource management resources to a global community. Key to its success at both international and regional levels has been the CGIAR community's willingness to seek out new partners and grasp emerging education technology. The research carried out by the 15 independent agricultural centres is mobilized in an effort to alleviate poverty and promote best practices in farming that encourage growth and investment to increase food security. Education prepares individuals planning to work as farmers, managers or policy makers; however, increasingly, teaching programs cannot keep up with the demand, science or new technologies. All too often, universities and research institutions in developing countries do not have access to current and advanced knowledge materials. The CGIAR on-line repository is freely available, providing accessibility for agricultural information, fostering continuous and professional development. There are current programs that strive to build and promote agricultural capacity strengthening frameworks who work with CGIAR centres and universities. It is anticipated that such collaboration will stimulate an expansion of research, development, education and training in agriculture in each participating region. Our goals are to streamline design efficiencies, integrate networks dedicated to higher learning, to expand the repository, generate comprehensive federated searches, and publish agricultural learning objects. CGIAR envisions a well-connected training community of practice that works together to address the learning needs of our partners in research, development, training and education, making use of recent advances in ICT to avail CGIAR learning resources in agriculture to an international learning community. …