Highlights

Agriculture is the principal occupation to larger population of many countries and the timely communication of the information related to agriculture assumes a greater priority. For the progress of research in agriculture and agricultural sciences, the data & information should be free (as in freedom), open (interoperability) and linked. Only when the data and information is 'free & open', more innovations could be possible and more contribution from agriculture sector would be to GDP of the country. As majority of the agricultural research is public funded, research outputs (data & information) should be openly available for public good.  

 The community products viz., free/open source software (FOSS),  interoperability protocols (Open Archives Initiative Protocol) and open licenses (Creative Commons & GNU Public) make sharing of research outputs (knowledge) easy. However, in the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) these products are being  not fully exploited, utilized and/or applied in agricultural research and communications. Only in during the National Agricultural Innovation Project under Component – I, considerable efforts have been made for the use of FOSS products and the results are 'Agropedia', 'Rice Knowledge Management Portal' (RKMP), ICAR headquarters website on Drupal. 

Agriculture is the principal occupation to larger population of many countries and the timely communication of the information related to agriculture assumes a greater priority. For the progress of research in agriculture and agricultural sciences, the data & information should be free (as in freedom), open (interoperability) and linked. Only when the data and information is 'free & open', more innovations could be possible and more contribution from agriculture sector would be to GDP of the country. As majority of the agricultural research is public funded, research outputs (data & information) should be openly available for public good.  

 The community products viz., free/open source software (FOSS),  interoperability protocols (Open Archives Initiative Protocol) and open licenses (Creative Commons & GNU Public) make sharing of research outputs (knowledge) easy. However, in the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) these products are being  not fully exploited, utilized and/or applied in agricultural research and communications. Only in during the National Agricultural Innovation Project under Component – I, considerable efforts have been made for the use of FOSS products and the results are 'Agropedia', 'Rice Knowledge Management Portal' (RKMP), ICAR headquarters website on Drupal. 

Therefore, a sensitization & capacity building workshop is being planned for agricultural researchers and policy makers in NARS on use and application of FOSS and knowledge sharing initiatives in agricultural research. The workshop would be conducted at various cities/location so that the agricultural researchers, FOSS developers, free knowledge advocates, legal experts can come together could interact and work/plan for the development of FOSS products relevant to agriculture and help in sharing agriculture research outputs for public good.

If you have interest for participation as participant/resource person/exhibit your FOSS product, please fill up the Expression of Interest Form.

Join the Mailing list on Google Groups.

More information on the Free and open Software and Knowledge Initiatives in Agricultural Research for Development (FOSKIARD) website.