Workshop promotes information sharing in agriculture and forestry sectors
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 | Participants of the Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity and Training workshop. |
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The opportunities facing the agriculture sector will change, and are already changing, because of the underlying changes in information technology. How people publish and use information on the World Wide Web has transformed in recent times.
These were the comments of the Acting Head of Delegation of the European Union for the Pacific, H.E Alistair MacDonald at the opening of the Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity and Training workshop on 22 October 2012.
“Agriculture, forestry and rural development will have a prominent place in the EU’s development cooperation agenda in future years, whether addressed directly through classical rural development projects, or indirectly in addressing climate change adaptation and natural disaster risk reduction,” participants were told at the Japan-Pacific ICT Centre located at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva.
As a follow-up to the first Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity and Training workshop in 2011, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the EU-funded Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and USP, committed to strengthening and facilitating technology-driven services in the dissemination and sharing of information.
SPC’s Mr Samu Turagacati explained that the use of Web 2.0 tools for communicating with stakeholders and sharing information can bring advantages to any organisation concerned with the satisfaction of its stakeholders.
Workshop participants were made aware of the need to understand organisational policies, strategies and governance on the use of social media.
“As organisations that provide key services to the region, we need to use good judgement about what materials should be uploaded online and in what context,” Mr Turagacati reminded those present.
Participants from the agricultural sector said that while Web 2.0 technologies and web tools are useful to create a community network between agriculture extension officers, exporters and other stakeholders, there was also a need to reach out to farmers and show them the potential of using such technology.
Deputy Director of USP’s IT Services, Mr Fereti Atalifo, acknowledged the participants from the agriculture, forestry and rural development sectors and the collective support by the European Union, CTA and SPC.
The second week of the workshop, targeting youths and stakeholders in the area of agriculture/forestry and rural development, began on 29 October.
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