Agric researchers to share findings

Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) has launched a system that will enable its researchers to disseminate and acquire information from their regional counterparts. The online system dubbed Electronic Regional Agriculture Information Learning System (ERAILS) is funded by Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), through the Association for Strengthening Research in Agriculture in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). Established in 1994, ASARECA is a sub-regional, intergovernmental, non-profit organisation working in Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, and DR Congo. “This project will help in building the capacity of our researchers and this is expected to play a major role in increasing output in the agricultural sector thereby raising national income,” said Leon Nabahungu, the acting Director of the Research Department at RAB. The development is also in line towards ensuring RAB effectively contributes to the success of the newly established system to share information among agricultural research institutions in the Eastern and Central Africa countries.ASARECA recently devised a mechanism to bring together agricultural research institutions through information sharing, a development that will provide a platform to promote access through the internet, capacity building through ICT training, supply ICT hardware and software, as well as set up a website: www.erails.net .The Agricultural Information and Learning System project is funded by the African Development Bank to the tune of $1.2 million. Nabahungu said that the initiative would facilitate the promotion of research studies in the region, adding that little information is freely accessible, hence impeding research development.“Most other scientific information is accessed through payments, although through certain websites, some information can be accessed,” he said.He pointed out that free agriculture research information is accessed through Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) and Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.In Rwanda, planning for agricultural research is done annually through scientific meetings with research questions coming from farmers. Constraints are analysed through research and policy needs.

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Agric researchers to share findings