CGIAR to offer agri courses through ICTs

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: India is soon going to have a network of post-graduate teaching in food and agriculture through open distant learning (ODL) programme as part of a new initiative of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The Open Food and Agriculture University (GO-FAU), designed as a pet project by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), is ready to disseminate knowledge through its partners.

Already, a MoU has been signed with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). “We are in search of other partners like general and agriculture universities agreeing to impart GO-FAU’s curriculum of open and distant learning,” says Dr Suresh Babu, senior research fellow in IFPRI and program leader of GO-FAU.

IFPRI is one of the 15 affiliated institutes of CGIAR. The annual general body meeting of CGIAR in December 2004 in Mexico city approved the GO-FAU project. This project, therefore, is now taken up as a CGIAR initiative, and is open to other affiliated institutes to join under the leadership of IFPRI.

The GO-FAU project will try to gather experiences from working of Icrisat’s Virtual Academy for Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) — a knowledge dissemination centre with the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Other such projects in operation are LRC and ICT-KM.

In India, a network of village knowledge centres (VKCs) are being set up by National Alliance Partners under the leadership of the Chennai-based MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.

“Our project is different in the sense that we will be imparting only post-graduate education. We will limit ourselves to universities. VASAT, VKCs are for imparting knowledge and information to masses through ICTs,” says Dr Babu.

GO-FAU is slated provide course content based on CGIAR research and professional and applied academic teachings in partnership with regional and national institutions. “By complementing and leveraging existing distance education courses, GO-FAU intends to provide flexible, affordable and accessible post-graduate education while rapidly building high quality capacity for agricultural development,” says IFPRI director-general, Dr Joachim von Braun.

Web-based CD-Rom, traditional text and other technologies will be used for different languages to cater to local needs. Courses will be imparted in almost all segments of agriculture including livestock, forestry and fisheries with a view to enhance agricultural development, reduce poverty and ensure food security.