CTA organizes seminar on agricultural information sources in hispanophone countries

Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation

Authors

Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation

Date Issued

1990

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Type

News Item

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Open Access

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Citation

CTA. 1990. CTA organizes seminar on agricultural information sources in hispanophone countries. Spore 25. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/45209

External link to download this item: http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta25e/

Abstract/Description

Notes

Part of CTA's mission is to break down language barriers which can all too often hinder the dessimination of scientific and technical information. However, the seminar which CTA recently organized on agricultural information sources in hispanophone countries seemed to go much further, in that it revealed Spain's considerable experience in the field of agricultural extension and opened up major potential areas of exchange between the ACP and Latin-American countries. The seminar was organized jointly with the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and GRET (Groupe de Recherches et d'Echanges Technologiques), and brought together 60 or so ACP and EC nationals, representatives of CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, Colombia) and IICA (Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Cooperation, Costa Rica) and UPEB (Union of Banana- Exporting Countries, Panama), FAO, and of INIBAP. All the key areas in the dissemination of scientific and technical information were addressed both in the full sessions and in the working groups. The group work was based on introductory presentations by some of the Spanish delegates, and revolved round four main issues: training and extension (including transfer of technologies), databanks and databases, publications, and audio-visual communications. The potential of Spain and the Latin-American countries in these fields was explored and analyzed in relation to both the needs of the ACP countries and to the realistic chances of cooperation. The recommendations were mainly concerned with the organization of technical gatherings on extension and fishing, and on the translation into English and French of reference works on rural technologies which currently exists only in Spanish. Different ways in which the ACP countries could access Spain's rich audio-visual resources and agricultural databanks and bases were suggested, notably - in the case of the latter - by encouraging the spread of CD-Rom technology. In the end a close collaboration between CIAT, IICA, and the ACP countries through the intermediary of CTA was urged - mainly in the spheres of training and publications. The Spanish Government's projected programme is certainly extensive, but given the obvious motivation of the seminar participants there is every reason to hope it will come to fruition. Moreover, the explicit commitment of the Spanish authorities to back up their cooperation with the countries by a substantial increase in their aid to the developing world gave the impetus for important conclusions to be reached during the course of the seminar. CTA declared its willingness to play the role of catalyst to help turn these new possibilities into reality