Management Information Systems (MIS) in ARD provide information related to the management of projects and activities in ARD such as on organizations, experts, projects/activities and project/activity outputs. This information is needed to share and exchange agricultural technologies and to build research partnerships across ARD Institutes and Natural Agricultural Research Systems. Because of this, a strong need for comprehensive and structured information services in this area has emerged in recent years.
Information on organizations, experts and projects in ARD is now managed by many different information services such as CARIS, WISARD, Infosys+, DFID R4D, AROW, the Regional Agricultural Information Systems and many others. Only a few of these systems share data among themselves. They have difficulty in coherently integrating their data with other systems. Consequently, the users encounter problems in finding the desired information as similar data are available from several sources, none of which is comprehensive and all of which differ in subject coverage, type coverage, up-to-date status, quantity and quality of information. Selecting only one source is limiting and cross-searches across systems are not possible. For the information services and the data owners, lack of coherence and ability to integrate MIS data makes maintenance of their services costly as many similar datasets have to be maintained and updated. With dwindling resources, especially for global public information of this nature, it has become important that there is greater coherence and global integration in management information for ARD.
GFAR, in collaboration with partner organizations, particularly FAO and Wageningen International, is focusing its attention on activities and projects aiming at building coherent and more globally integrated Management Information Systems (MIS). In this context, the Content Management Taskforce set in place by the Expert Consultation on International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology (Rome, 2005) has initiated steps where MIS information from distributed databases such as those managed by NARS and RAIS can be coherently accessed and integrated in MISs across the globe.
Greater coherence and integration of MIS information includes:
- Distributed management for easier maintenance and greater reliability of this information
Data are most easily managed (stored, updated and made accessible) where they were originally generated and where they will be presumably kept updated for answering strong local needs, usually at the “lowest” level possible, be it geographically or subject-wise.
In the present situation, in which many databases already exist that were created with a broad coverage, taking steps towards a distributed architecture could mean implementing data exchange procedures between these broad databases and the sources of their data (national / organizational databases that manage the same data and can guarantee their maintenance), possibly transforming these broad-coverage databases into information services leveraging on distributed and reliable sources.
- Agreement on standards and technologies for easier interoperability
Powerful information services that provide access to distributed information are easily built if all the available data sources manage their data in the same way. This is why the Task Force is enabling the ARD community to agree on standards and common procedures in ARD data management and exchange. Some standards exist for facilitating information exchange and service interoperability in the agricultural field. The reference website for these standards is the Agricultural Information Management Standards website managed by FAO.
The Global Forum on Agricultural Research, as an organisation that facilitates communication and information sharing and collaborative, cost effective partnerships between the various actors of the ARD community, is promoting and coordinating activities and projects that contributes to building coherent and integrated MIS. EGFAR, which is designed as a tool to fulfil the need for a communication platform to exchange experiences, information and knowledge among all stakeholders involved in ARD now features the relevant proposals related to MIS (standards, tools, guidelines, tutorials).
