Agricultural Research Information Research Articles

Estimating the distributional impact of innovation platforms on income of smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria

This research studies the distributional effects of IP adoption on the farm income of smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria in an effort to move beyond the standard mean impact assessment of agricultural interventions. In order to account for selection bias that may result from both observed and unobserved factors, the study used a conditional instrumental variable quantile treatment effects (IV-QTE) strategy. The use of IPs greatly affects the revenue distributions of maize producers, as empirical evidence from the outcomes shows. Particularly, the impacts of adoption are stronger at the lower tails and just above the mean of the income distributions, indicating that impoverished farming households benefit more from the strategic functions of IP adoption in boosting income. These findings highlight how important it is to effectively target and disseminate improved agricultural technologies in order to increase the revenue of smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria from maize production. Agricultural research information and access to extension services are two policy tools that can help improve the successful adoption and diffusion of any agricultural intervention without favoring any particular groups.

Determining the Professional Development Needs of Florida Integrated Pest Management Extension Agents

With agriculture as the second largest economic industry in Florida, the state's Extension agents need subject matter expertise necessary for disseminating the latest in agricultural research information to agricultural producers. Using an exploratory sequential design coupled with a Borich model, we determined the professional development needs of Florida Extension agents working in integrated pest management (IPM). Through our needs assessment, we identified 16 IPM competencies and found that the highest priority relative to needed professional development was for the competency "determining pest thresholds." Extension personnel can use the list generated to assess perceptions of importance and ability level regarding IPM competencies among Extension professionals in their states.

Integration of Agricultural Research Planning and Its Implementation to Improve Food Security Through Development of Agricultural Research Information System (SIPP)

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Causes and Effect of Occupational Stress and Coping on Performance with Special Reference to Length of Service: An Empirical Study Using Multinomial Logistic Regression Approach

The manuscript presents the outcome of our research study on effect of occupational stress, coping strategies adopted, length of service and their relation with performance of employees. A survey using an undisguised questionnaire was carried on the employees working in the International Agricultural Research Institute and Information Technology sector in Indian Metro, Hyderabad. The data from the 756 respondents, including 381 women and 375 men responses was used for analysis. The occupational stress was measured using 14 stress causing components—workload, co-workers, peer, peer-support, role ambiguity, role conflict, career, harassment, psychological factors, physiological factors, behavioural factors, social support, job control, approach coping and voidance coping, length of service on dependent factor Performance of the respondents from the International Agricultural Research Institute and IT sector. The effect on dependent variable performance with the independent factors length of service was divided into 4 groups in 1 - 5 years, 6 - 10 years, 11 - 15 years and >15 years of service, occupational stress factors, coping strategies were measured. The overall C-Alpha value is 0.92 for overall components, 0.91 for occupational stress components, 0.92 for overall coping, 0.69 for performance; whereas 0.69 for avoidance coping 0.69 for approach coping. The likely hood odds rations (ORs) were estimated to predict degree of association of occupational stress, coping strategies, length of service with performance of the employees, gender and age differences.

Who Talks to Whom in Malawi's Agricultural Research Information Network?

Purpose: The sector-wide approach currently dominates as the strategy for developing the agricultural sector of many African countries. Although recognised that collaborative agricultural research is vital in ensuring success of sector-wide agricultural development strategies; there have been few efforts to understand the dynamics of national agricultural research/development networks in Africa. This study fills this gap by analysing the dynamics of networking and interactions between institutions in the National Agricultural Research System in Malawi. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study sampled actors in the National Agricultural Research System in Malawi, which included the main public agricultural research department, academic institutions, semi-autonomous research institutions, private companies and international agricultural research institutions. Data was analysed using Social Network Analysis. Findings: Results demonstrate that public agricultural research departments play a central coordinating role in facilitating information sharing; with other actors remaining on the periphery. However, it also shows the important role other actors play to relay information to a wider network of stakeholders. These secondary information pathways can play a very crucial role in ensuring successful implementation of the national agricultural research agenda. Practical implication: Policy-makers are called upon to integrate other research actors into the mainstream national agricultural research information network. This is vital as other research actors are, at the global level, increasingly taking up a greater role in financing and disseminating research and research results. Originality/Value: The study contributes greatly towards knowledge needed for continuing the transformation of African agricultural research; and aligning the African agricultural research vision and practice with the emerging global agricultural research paradigm.

The Generation and Dissemination of Agricultural Information to Farmers in Nigeria: A Review

Literature review is a comprehensive survey of the work published in a particular field of study or line of research, usually over a specific period of time, in the form of an in-depth, critical bibliographic essay or annotated list in which attention is drawn to the most significant work. This review will examine previous and current studies dealing with the events that have influenced the economic problems of Nigerian farmers. The review covers such area as: The concept of agricultural information, information generation output and types, information needs and assessment, users of agricultural research information, sources and access to agricultural information, the concept of information flow and the challenges/barriers of information dissemination were all reviewed.

A genome-based database for agricultural biotechnology

The National Agricultural Biotechnology Information Center (NABIC) plays a leading role in maintaining a database of information for agricultural plants and microbes. Since 2002, the NABIC has constructed an agricultural biology-based computational infrastructure and has provided comprehensive agricultural biological research information in Korea. Its major functions are focused on developing bioinformatics tools for investigating agricultural genomes and providing a database that integrates information from multiple plants and microbes. This new genome-based database provides useful information through a user-friendly web interface that allows analysis of genome infrastructure and searching of various resources. Key words: Genome-based, database, biotechnology, web service.

ENGLISH

The paper briefly describes the history and development of agricultural research information system(AGRIS), its network, documentation tools, products/services, HRD and capacity building programme. Anattempt has been made to showcase the contribution of India in AGRIS development. Limitations and problemsfaced during AGRIS input preparation have been discussed in detail and an action plan is suggested for furtherprogress and success of AGRIS programme in India. doi: 10.14429/djlit.32.2.1401

An Information-based Model for an Interactive Web Service with Agricultural Biotechnology

Abstract The National Agricultural Biotechnology Information Cen-ter (NABIC) constructed an agricultural biology-based in-frastructure and developed a biological information- based database. The major functions of the NABIC are focused on biotechnological developments for agricul-tural bioinformatics and providing a web-based service to construct bioinformatics workflows easily, such as protein function prediction and genome systems biology programs. The NABIC has concentrated on the func-tional genomics of major crops, building an integrated biotechnology database for agro-biotech information that focuses on the proteomics of major agricultural re-sources, such as rice, Chinese cabbage, rice Ds-tagging lines, and microorganisms.Keywords: biotechnology, database, genome, informa-tion model, web service Introduction The genomic information from humans to microorga-nisms is rapidly increasing in the 21st century. Today, technological advances in the fields of genomic se-quencing and protein structure have led to the develop-ment of genomic, proteomic, microarray, and functional genomic data (Ann, 2008). Biological databases have been established to optimize scientific exploitation of the explosion of data within bioinformatics. Bioinfor-matics databases and tools provide analyzed results to understand the basic principles of molecular inter-actions and systemic functional behaviors of organisms (Russ, 2007). With the continuous elaboration of bio-informatics tools around the world, various databases have been constructed at bioinformatics centers with gene expression, genetic marker, microarray gene fam-ily, protein prediction, and functional genetic information (Kim et al., 2010). The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) pro-vides analysis and retrieval resources for the data in GenBank and other biological data that are made avail-able through the NCBI website (Sayers et al., 2008). GRAMENE (http://www.gramene.org/) provides genomic information for Oryza sativa using a genomic browser (Youens-Clark et al., 2008). In Korea, biological information-based models have been developed with a knowledge-based approach for functional gene prediction, gene data-mining using mi-croarray, and protein-protein interaction networks (Kim et al., 2008). The Korean Bioinformation Center (http:// www.kobic.re.kr/) is a national research center for bio-informatics that plays a key role in various areas, such as genomics, proteomics, systems biology, and person-alized medicine. The Biology Research Information Cen-ter (http://bric.postech.ac.kr/) and Biotech Policy Resear-ch Center (http://www.bioin.or.kr/) support the govern-ment in setting up biotechnology information and all of the relevant information provided in the portal site. The NABIC (http://nabic.naas.go.kr/) has constructed an agri-cultural biology-based infrastructure and has provided comprehensive agricultural biological research informa-tion. Major functions are focused on biotechnological developments for agricultural bioinformatics.

Availability and use of information communication technologies (ICT) facilities in agricultural research Institutes and information centres in Ibadan, Nigeria: problems and prospects

The study examined the availability of Information and CommunicationTechnologies(ICT) facilities in A gricultural Research Institutes in Ibadan. This study is essentially a survey research with adoption of a purposive sampling technique which produced a total of 169 Research Scientists in all the Reasearch Institutes surveyed. Data for the study was collec ted with the use of a well structured questionaire, which were administered on the 169 Research Scientists, out of which 165 which represents 97.6% were retrieved and analysed for the study. Findings showed that Research Scientists in the various Reearch Institutes have access to some ICT facilities especially Laptops, and Personal computers. Other ICT facilitiesare not available due to inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, management problems, and lack of qualified personnel to manage the ICT centres etc. The study recommends that more computers should be procured and connected to the Internet through the wireless network in order to reduce hardship faced by Researchers without laptops. More qualified personnel should be recruited to manage the ICT centres and Government should provide more funds for Research Institutes to meet the challenges of ICT application; which has become nerve centre for adequate research information especially with existence of several agricultural databases on the Internet.

Where Is Agricultural Economics and AgriBusiness Research Information Published and Indexed? A Comparison of Coverage in Web of Knowledge, CAB Abstracts, EconLit, and Google Scholar

ABSTRACT Identifying the best source of information to satisfy the needs of local clientele has always been the challenge facing collection development and instruction librarians. In order to provide users with the best possible access tool and source for comprehensive information, it is important that librarians be aware of the most productive sources of information in a field. This paper identifies where the bulk of agricultural economics research is published and indexed. It also ascertains whether Google Scholar is as productive in covering this information as CAB s and EconLit. The cited reference counts for the top 50 cited sources in Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar are also compared. The scatter of the journal literature in this field, based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings, is also provided. The study identified a broad range of article scattering in areas where agricultural economics and agribusiness materials are published. On the cited reference count, Google Scholar was as productive as the Web of Knowledge. Google Scholar is a free source of very useful information for cited references and other subject searches in the area of agricultural economics and could be used to complement traditional databases.

Exploring the Feasibility of a Web-based System for Farmers Access to Current Agricultural Research Information in Western Australia

This paper discusses the phases of design, development and evaluation of a Web-based information system for easy tracking of current agricultural research information. This system comes in the form of a web site, linked to a database that stores agricultural research information, which can be interrogated by farmers and researchers using simple search tools. The value of this system relies in its ability to provide up-to-date agricultural research information, delivered in a readily accessible form and specifically designed for an audience with rather poor communication links to Web-based information. The development of the AgResearch prototype arose from discussions with a group of Western Australian farmers and researchers in regards to the need for increased communication between the two groups in relation to agricultural research projects. The development of a system with characteristics similar to the prototype designed in this research would benefit the agricultural industry in Western Australia, as currently there is no farmer focused, state wide, mass distribution system in place for the dissemination of up-to-date agricultural research information.

Testing and validation of an expert system for making liming decisions

Computer-based technologies are becoming increasingly important in translating the wealth of agricultural research information into forms that can be used by extension workers. The Acidity Decision Support System (ADSS) is a computer-based expert system that diagnoses and corrects Al-toxicity problems on highly-weathered mineral soils. The objectives of this work were to use published data to evaluate and provide recommendations to improve the ADSS knowledge base. The relative yield-Al saturation curves used by ADSS satisfactorily predict the results of field experiments for maize and soybean, but needs to be improved for rice and cassava. Curves used by ADSS for all four crops should, however, be updated to represent the research data better. Insufficient data were obtained to evaluate other crops satisfactorily. ADSS predicted that more lime would be needed to reduce soil Al saturation than was actually needed. This can be corrected by changing the value of the liming factor (LF) constant in ADSS to better represent the capability of liming materials to neutralize soil Al in the field. ADSS also predicted more response of rice and soybean to lime in on-farm experiments than occurred in practice, although there was a correlation between predicted and actual relative yield for soybean. ADSS should indicate the chances that the predicted relative yield response will not occur because of factors other than liming, under normal farming conditions. The Smyth and Cravo equation provides a reasonable estimate, in lieu of alternatives, of the change in soil Al saturation for up to five years after liming.

Agricultural Research Information System (ARIS) of ICAR

The Indian National Agricultural Research System (NARS) with its nationwide network of educational and research institutions consisting of state agricultural universities, zonal research stations, ICAR institutes with regional stations established Agricultural Research Information System in 1995 to strengthen its research information base with funds from National Agicultwal Research Project It has two main components: creation of infrastructure for providing electronic connectivity and creation of MIS and computerised/electronic databases of Indian research findings of NARS in various fids of agriculture and allied fields. Basic hardware to create mail and internet connectivity has 'already been provided. Local Area Networks are being created at ail sites. Programme to strengthen the connectivity using VSATs and creation of databases has been worked out for the ninth Fie Year Plan period. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dbit.18.2.3388

Growth of Agricultural Journalism and Agricultural Research Information Centre at ICAR

Modern agricultural journalism was born in lndia with the advent of printing when three books on modem methods were got translated by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Now, ICAR publishes four journals and two newdetters in English and three in Hindi. Overall, about 250 periodicals in lndia are devoted to agriculture. The paper also describes the Agricultural Research lnformation Centre (ARIC) at Indian Council of Agricultural Research Headquarters, India, the databases available, publications broughtout and services rendered by the centre. Besides the importance of ARIC in SAARC countries, the proposals for the ninth plan are also discussed. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dbit.18.2.3390

English

English

福岡県の農業研究情報システムの設計

福岡県農業試験場の研究成果情報をデータベース化して蓄積し，電話回線を通じて外部から検索可能なシステムを作った．検索のみでなく試験場へのデータ送付も可能にした．情報はタイトルと1～4千字の成果の内容からなっている．現在までに蓄積したデータの数は約千件である．利用者の制限はない．本システムにより研究成果が容易に検索でき，情報伝達が迅速に行えるようになった．また情報利用の実態がつかめるので，情報提供のありかたや情報の内容自体の反省材料にすることが可能である．

Information for agricultural research in Zambia

An overview of the broad national objectives for agriculture in Zambia is given. The national information infrastructure is mentioned, emphasizing organized agricultural research collections. The current organizational changes in the agricultural research branch of the Ministry of Agriculture, and their impact on the provision of information services, are discussed. The Mount Makulu Research Station Library and its services are described in detail and proposals for the improvement of the agricultural research information network are made.

Agricultural Research and Agricultural Information Services for East Africa

Agricultural Research and Agricultural Information Services for East Africa