During the AFITA, IAALD and WCCA World Conference on Agricultural Information and IT held in Atsugi (Tokyo), Japan, from 24 to 27 August 2008, GFAR organized a pre-conference workshop titled "Adoption of ICT Enabled Information Systems for Agricultural Development and Rural Viability", four sessions titled “Extension Service / Rural Development / ICT Adoption / Policy” and a wrap up plenary session which hosted a panel discussion of the workshop and session reviews .

Download the full report of the Workshop

Program of the pre-conference workshop sponsored by GFAR:

Workshop First Session – Global aspects 

Workshop outline – A.Maru, E. Gelb 

Rob Fairley (US) - Global digital divides and the effects of technology use on educational outcomes. 

Ajit Maru (GFAR) - Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies in Agricultural Research for Development

Stephen Rudgard (FAO) - ICT adoption linking Research and Extension 

Workshop Second Session – National Aspects 

Karel Charvat (Czech Republic) – The role of EFITA as an International ICT Organization

Nori Nakamura (Japan) - Review ICT Adoption for Agriculture of surveys in Japan 

Virupakshagouda Patil (INSAIT, India) - Web Based Agricultural Extension In India

Iraj Namdarian, (INEA, Italy) - Italian rural ICT deployment and availability at farm and e-government level 

Jenny Brogden (UK) - Government priorities in Closing Rural Digital Divides 

Workshop Third Session – ICT Adoption Thematic Issues 

Sjaak Wolfert (EFITA) - Information Sharing in Agri-Food Supply Chain Networks

Divine Njie (FAO) - Status of adoption of information related to markets and agribusiness 

Roxanna Samii (IFAD) - Role of ICT as enablers for agriculture and small scale farmers 


A full Report of the pre-conference workshop is available.