|
www.caisnet.org
|
What is CAIS? |
|
|
|
Welcome to the CAIS Web Site |
The Caribbean Agricultural Information Service will improve access to technological information that will directly impact on the productive capacity of the agricultural sector through the development of national networks at the level of individual Caribbean countries.
| mid 80's | Caribbean governments
recognised the need for a Caribbean information service to support
informed decisions about production and marketing activities in the
agricultural sector.
|
| 1995 | The Caribbean Agricultural
Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) supported earlier efforts
to integrate information into development strategies and define agricultural
information needs in the Caribbean. The result was a study of eleven
(11) groups in sixteen (16) Caribbean countries.
|
| 1997 | The survey results of
the 11 groups used to develop a draft framework for a structure to
meet the needs of the region. This framework was presented at a meeting
of regional representatives who recommended the development of a Caribbean
Agricultural Information Service (CAIS) as a mechanism to meet the
information needs identified.
|
| 1998 | National
consultations were held in a number of Caribbean countries as
a follow up to decisions in the 1997 meeting of regional representatives.
After the national consultations were completed, the findings, suggestions
and recommendations were analysed and incorporated into a CAIS draft
project proposal. The output was a final draft proposal, which is
to be presented to donor agencies to seek funding for a five year
implementation period of CAIS. Even while this occurred a series of
pilot projects was introduced to
gather data with a view to using the experiences to develop mechanisms
and activities.
|
| 1999 | During the period of resource
mobilisation the outlined activities will continue as part of CAIS.
|
| 2000 | A number of surveys were also conducted with a view to collecting basic data on the ICTs in the agriculture sector. |
| 2001 | CAIS and CARDI Project Planning and Stakeholders Meeting. Click here to view the final report in Adobe PDF. |
To provide access to timely, accurate, relevant and current agricultural information in order to assist users in:
 |
Becoming more competitive; |
|
Better planning and management of their operations; |
|
Upgrading the quality of plant, products and services. |
To develop capacity at the national level for:
|
Collection, organisation, repackaging and dissemination of information; |
|
Communication of information to target groups. |
To strengthen the Regional Information Centre at CARDI to:
|
assist in the development of national agricultural information networks |
|
facilitate and maintain linkages with regional and extra-regional stakeholders and partners for improvement in the delivery of agricultural information to regional clientele. |
The creation of national networks would best fulfil the information needs of the agricultural sector. The national networks will be responsible for developing their own networks with technical assistance and guidance form CAIS Regional Information Centre, CARI headquarters.
The structure will focus on building capacities to develop appropriate information collective services to meet general/ sector needs, rather than serving people individually.
CAIS will operate as a Caribbean-wide service supporting the development of national networks, working with common protocols and standards with electronic links to each other and to the centralised co-ordination service located at the Regional Co-ordination Centre.
The elements in the operational structure are
- national networks of agricultural institutions,
- the Regional Information Centre,
- clients and
- partner institutions.
(a) National Networks of Agricultural Institutions:
These comprise agricultural institutions and organisations in the private and public sectors which need to work together to collect, organise, store and provide data and information for use by individuals and institutions to further agricultural development, management and competitiveness. These networks will need to designate a hub as an administrative contact point for the Regional Information Centre.
(b) Regional Information Centre: This responsibility will be undertaken by CARDI.
(c) Clients: These are users of the proposed service; groups of users are identified in Section D.
(d) Partner Institutions: These are institutions, which collaborate in research programmes, and/or provide "in-kind" or financial support for provision of the services and products offered by CAIS. Accordingly partner institutions can include:
|
Research Institutions |
|
Donors |
|
Planners and policymakers in the Ministries of Agriculture in each participating country |
|
International providers of information services. |
The principle governing the operational structure of CAIS is, that as far as it is possible to do so, each national network of agricultural institutions will aim towards developing the capability to provide its own clientele with an agricultural information service - with back-up service from other national networks of agricultural information in the region and from the Regional Information Centre at CARDI. Clients will be encouraged to make the first point of contact with CAIS at the country level. However the Regional Information Centre will also be available to clients at the national level where the national network cannot deliver or where the service required is a specialised one.
Accordingly, communication between and among national networks of agricultural institutions will be encouraged in addition to communication between national networks and the Regional Information Centre. Computer links via in-country Internet service providers will become the initial means of access to information services in CAIS.
In order to fulfil this aim, resources and capacity building will need to be developed within each national network of agricultural institutions in the CAIS service. National coordinating hubs will need to be appointed in each participating member country of CAIS to facilitate communication with the Regional Information Centre for the management of the service.
Consideration must be given to the sustainability of the service at the national level and at the regional level. A marketing strategy will need to be devised and implemented for each product and service. This strategy will need to make provision for recovery of partial operating costs in the medium term.
Clients can be found at two levels within the proposed operational structure - at the level of the Regional Information Centre and at the level of the national networks of agricultural institutions.
The Regional Information Centre will focus on serving:
|
National networks of agricultural institutions or referrals from these national networks |
|
Stakeholders and Partner Institutions (research institutions, donors and planners and policymakers in Ministries of Agriculture) |
National Networks
National networks will focus on serving directly or indirectly (through intermediaries) the following sub-groups within the agricultural sector:
Producers Planners and policymakers Marketers Trainers/educators Researchers Agricultural extension officers in Ministries of Agriculture and Commodity Boards Consultants Media - print, radio and TV Other national networks The survey on agricultural information needs indicated information sources, which were identified as useful to client groupings. In some instances sub-groups were themselves identified as useful information sources. In the CAIS concept, these sub-groups are identified as intermediaries in the delivery of CAIS services. While these intermediaries will not necessarily be the only mechanism for reaching specified clients, they should continue to be used as another means for the delivery of information. Below are identified intermediaries and corresponding client groupings:
Agricultural extension officers - farming communities, trainers/educators, teachers and students; Media (print and electronic) - farming communities, trainers/educators, extension officers; Libraries and documentation centres - Agricultural researchers, trainers/educators, teachers and students.
|
Links:
|
||||||
