Focus on Agricultural Information Transfer

Abstract

Presents a brief account of the history of agricultural information transfer with special reference to the growth and development of secondary information services, and makes a case for integration of the existing major agricultural and related information services into one single cooperative venture. Considers the creation of AGRIS as the first step in that direction. Recent advances in information technology (IT), making it possible to transfer and store databases in electronic form accessed via networks, open up new possibilities for access to agricultural information in both developed countries and developing countries. Database producers, especially those in the agricultural sectors, should grasp the opportunities provided by advances in IT to reach a wider user population in all parts of the world, concentrating their limited financial resources increasingly in that area, rather than wasting them by duplicating their efforts at the input end.