CD-ROM / Internet databases

The institutions supported by CTA's CD-ROM programme include research centres, government agricultural departments, universities, NGOs, farmers' organisations and private sector organisations. As the information needs of these bodies differ - some require information on markets, prices or export regulations, for example, while others might need educational material - the eligibility criteria differ:

research centres (including universities): the centre must be involved in research and have a minimum of 100 users, CD-ROM hardware, a budget for maintaining and upgrading equipment, and trained staff;
NGOs, farmer organisations, private sector: these must be non-profit bodies, their beneficiaries must be farmers or farmer organisations, and they must have a basic structure (library, information service) for disseminating information.

Centres supported by CTA under the CD-ROM programme: CD-ROM subscribers and Internet database subscribers.

CONTACT: oguya@cta.int

Electronic Reference Library (ERL)

Just as CTA played a key role in pioneering the use of CD-ROM technology to disseminate agricultural information, it is now involved in helping ACP agricultural research and development institutions to use the Internet to access and share information. One way is through access to agricultural databases. A recent pilot exercise in Botswana on the possibility of replacing CTA's CD-ROM and Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services with an Internet subscription showed that ERL and similar gateway services are a suitable replacement where institutions have good Internet access and the resources to run such a service.

Following the success of the Botswana exercise, the service has been expanded to other centres in ACP countries (see the Internet database subscribers). The current package that CTA supports has four core agricultural databases: AGRICOLA, AGRIS, CAB Abstracts and TROPAG & RURAL.

Centres supported by CTA under its CD-ROM programme can apply to be upgraded to receive the Internet subscription if they have the resources to support the service.

Links

IPSD

CD-ROM and Internet
database subscribers