Regional Capacity Development Workshop on
National e-Agriculture Strategies in Europe and Central Asia

Gödöllő-Budapest, Hungary
22-24 June 2015

organized jointly by FAO and GAK, Szent István University

Annotation   |   Agenda  |  Presentations  |  Practical Info  |  List of Participants  | Photo gallery | Video

Introduction

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have long been recognized as key enablers for bridging the digital divide and achieving the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, environmental balance and social inclusion. ICTs have proven to be instrumental in the delivery of information and services in health, education, trade, commerce and other fields, and have contributed to increased transparency and accountability.

The e-Agriculture aims to enhance agriculture and rural development through improved information and communication processes. It involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use ICTs in the rural domain. Technological application, facilitation, support of standards and norms, capacity building, education and extension all belong to the broader concept of e-Agriculture.

Background

The e-Agriculture is one of the action lines identified in the declaration and plan of action (2003) of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The "Tunis Agenda for the Information Society", published on 18 November 2005, emphasizes the leading facilitating roles that UN agencies need to play in the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action.

In June 2006, FAO hosted the first e-Agriculture workshop, bringing together representatives of leading development organizations involved in agriculture. The meeting served to initiate development of an effective process to engage as wide a range of stakeholders involved in e-agriculture, and resulted in the formation of the e-Agriculture Community, a community of practice.

Recently, FAO has been developing the National e-Agriculture Strategy Guide and Toolkit which aims at assisting countries at mainstreaming ICTs in agriculture and developing or revitalizing a country’s e-Agriculture strategy in alignment with the agriculture goals and priorities. The Guide and the Toolkit can be used as useful resource to facilitate country decision makers in developing a national e-Agriculture vision, action plan and implementation strategy. The existence of a comprehensive national strategy can prevent e-Agriculture projects from being implemented in isolation - resulting duplication of efforts and resources - and develops efficiency gains from intra sector and cross sector synergy. In addition, a participatory planning and strategic approach in ICT applications in agriculture are contributing to improving interinstitutional collaboration, transparency and trust in authorities.

The e-Agriculture Community of Practice (www.e-agriculture.org), along with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is organizing an online forum on “National E-agriculture Strategy Development”, which will take place from 29 April to 11 May 2015 on e-Agriculture.org.

The Regional workshop

The Regional Workshop, organized by FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and GAK at Gödöllõ Agricultural University, Hungary, invites decision makers and agricultural information management experts from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, who will be introduced to the well-structured method of observing the current e-Agriculture environment and identify the required e-Agriculture components, which is an important element of developing and operating a successful e-Agriculture strategy at the national level. Participants will be provided with guidance and practical training to improve their understanding and skills of using the Toolkit, and will also have an opportunity to feed back their experiences to the developers of the Guide. The event is to be followed by a booklet containing the country profiles, highlighted success stories, lessons learnt, regional dimensions and recommendations.

More specifically, the objectives of the workshop will be to:

• Bring together policy makers and practitioners involved in the use of ICTs for agriculture, forestry and fishery to explore synergies and collaboration

• Present and review the e-agriculture strategy guide

• Collect and share experiences

• Discuss the role of national and thematic networks

   

The official workshop language will be English. Interpretation to Russian will be provided.