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Information Products and Services
PublicationsWe provide a range of publications on topics relevant to ACP agricultural and rural development – many of them in both print and electronic format (e.g., books accompanied by a CD and an online edition). We publish in both English and French; and sometimes, in Portuguese. Publications fall into two main categories:
Details of all publications are available in the E-Catalogue and Anancy. In selecting titles to co-publish, we are guided by the criteria laid out in our Publishing Policy. LINKS All publications in our catalogue are distributed free of charge to subscribers to the Publications Distribution Service (PDS). For details on becoming a PDS subscriber – or on obtaining publications if you are not eligible to be a subscriber – see How to order publications from CTA. More than 600 titles are available in French, English and Portuguese. The PDS now has more than 40,000 subscribers – ACP individuals and organisations involved in agricultural and rural development. Titles are promoted mainly through the catalogue (print, online and CD), promotional brochures and mailings, reviews in Spore and Esporo, and displays at book fairs and CTA events. Radio is still one of the most important communication tools in ACP rural communities. Since 1991, we have produced over 50 Rural Radio Resource Packs (RRRPs) for radio broadcasters to use in their own agricultural programs . Each pack, in cassette and/or CD, focuses on a specific topic of relevance to ACP agriculture and rural development. Generally, content is developed in collaboration with our partners and end-user beneficiaries on the ground. Each pack has materials for a radio programme: interviews, transcripts of the interviews, introductory notes on each interview for the presenter, resource documents on the topic (such as articles in Spore), and a questionnaire for users to provide feedback to CTA. We also work with ACP-EU partners to provide training in rural radio. For details of forthcoming courses, see Training courses and applications. LINKS Video and TV programmes CTA co-produces video and television programmes to sensitise the general public on agricultural issues, to document and share information on farmers’ innovations and to increase the outreach of CTA’s products and services. Our video products include:
LINKS Question-and-answer service (QAS) CTA set up its QAS in 1985. In 1997, it started to work more with local partners to deliver the service to ACP institutions. CTA now supports 30 QAS centres within Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. The activities of the QAS are wide ranging and consist of promoting the service and increasing the number of users; identifying user needs and producing products best suited to meet those needs; identifying answers from documented sources; working with subject matter specialists to respond to questions and providing users with full-text documents and/or references. Part of CTA's support to the QAS is to provide training. Often, we use staff from the centres that have been operating for some time to train staff in new centres; for these courses we produced a QAS training manual. To request a copy please contact us. We also support staff from some centres to attend other CTA courses. LINKS
Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) service The SDI service aims to provide agricultural researchers with up-to-date information on their particular research topic. Currently, research topics are selected from over 100 profiles in agriculture and rural development. Priority is given more to ACP-wide rather than individual research priorities. CTA works with national and regional research institutions to identify these important topics. We work with two institutions - the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) – to provide the information. They run the researchers' profiles through multiple databases and, every 2 months, provide the researchers with bibliographic information, including abstracts. Each researcher has an annual quota of 10 units. A unit could be an article from a journal, a chapter from a book, or an item of grey literature. All the information is sent by airmail or e-mail. LINKS
Under our Database Subscription service, we support ACP research institutions, government agricultural departments and universities to access agricultural databases. Partners select the databases that are most relevant to their institutions and after reviewing their requests according to set criteria, CTA subscribes to databases on their behalf. LINKS
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