Un expert indien chevronné, spécialiste de l'information dans le domaine agricole, M. Lakshminarasimh Haravu, a mis sa longue expérience au service de la FAO en acceptant un engagement de deux mois dans le cadre du Programme pour l'utilisation d'experts retraités. La FAO a fait appel aux compétences de M. Haravu pour aider la Division de la bibliothèque et des systèmes documentaires (GIL) à appliquer une nouvelle stratégie en vue de l'adoption d'un système mondial d'informations sur l'agriculture.
Cette stratégie vise à diffuser un éventail élargi d'information sur l'agriculture auprès d'un public plus vaste en privilégiant la mise en place de moyens nationaux de gestion de l'information. Il s'agit de permettre aux pays de gérer leurs données nationales dans le domaine agricole de façon autonome et efficace.
El experto superior indio en información agrícola, Lakshminarasimh Haravu, puso a disposición de la FAO su larga experiencia en una misión de dos meses que llevó a cabo en el ámbito del Programa de expertos jubilados. La FAO pidió al Sr. Haravu que colaborara con su Dirección de Servicios de Biblioteca y Documentación (GIL) para llevar a cabo una nueva estrategia con vistas a un sistema mundial de información agrícola.
La nueva estrategia se centra en la divulgación de una amplia serie de informaciones agrícolas a una vasta audiencia y en dar prioridad a la creación de capacidad nacional en materia de gestión de información. El fin que se persigue es que los países puedan administrar sus datos agrícolas nacionales de forma autónoma y eficaz.
Senior Indian agricultural information expert Lakshminarasimh Haravu lent a lifetime's expertise to FAO in a two-month assignment which he undertook under the Retired Experts Programme. FAO called on Haravu to assist its Library and Documentation Services Division (GIL) in implementing a new strategy for a global agricultural information system. The new strategy centres on the dissemination of a wider range of agricultural information to a broader audience and prioritizing national capacity-building in information management. The aim is to enable countries to manage national agricultural data autonomously and effectively. Achievement of this goal will be instrumental in helping FAO meet the objectives of the Plan of Action of the World Food Summit, held in Rome in 1996, which pledged to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015 and to reduce significantly the levels of malnutrition.
Haravu was formerly a senior manager in the Library and Documentation Services of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India. He has also held senior positions in the information services of other international organizations in Africa, North America and Latin America.
During his mission to headquarters, Haravu advised staff on a number of aspects of FAO's information systems including: the restructuring of its databases for the International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS) and the Current Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS); the decentralization and simplification of its data processing procedures; and the development of a training package for capacity-building in the developing world with special emphasis on using the Internet for agricultural information management.
Haravu advised on the idea of restructuring AGRIS to harness client-server approaches in hosting the database on a local area network (LAN) as well as on Web servers. Discussions also included the restructuring of the Library Catalogue database and harmonization of the two databases. FAO's World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT) is designing several tools to make it easier for input centres to contribute data and to widen the scope of their data inputs by enabling centres to use them for other purposes. Haravu developed a software package that will be offered to input centres free of charge and will permit wider and more user-friendly access to locally produced databases in the developing world.
In the final stage of his assignment, Haravu recommended the development of an information training package aimed at senior managers, policy-makers, information professionals and end users in developing countries. The proposed training package is modular and will promote self-reliance among countries by using local agricultural institutions and experts in the developed and developing world to design its various modules.