Agricultural In

Information Systems projects!

projects!
CARICOM countries are no strangers to projects to develop
information systems in agriculture. We have had many national, sub-
regional, regional projects; projects managed by Ministries of Agriculture, by
development organisations, such as IICA and CARDI, by private sector agencies.
This is the final in the 8- There have been many! This current effort is just one of many recent initiatives.
bulletin series. The Its objective is not to solve all the information problems in agriculture in
aimed at CARICOM. Rather, its objective is to stimulate a new thinking, outside the box
promoting wider even, of how we should approach the issue of building information systems in
appreciation of agriculture in CARICOM. This is especially given the new context for agriculture
information and and the need to think and act in an integrated and systemic manner.

Are we making genuine progress?

knowledge
management for
agricultural
Consider this! In 2008, after many, many externally financed projects,
development
generally and needs assessments, and systems we are still listing “lack of
specifically, support information systems” as a major and binding constraint to competitive
for the IICA/CTA and sustainable agriculture in CARICOM. Farmers complain that they are not
project on building a
getting market information quick enough to make good decisions. Policy makers
monitoring and
evaluation information complain that they are not getting information from the private sector to feed
system - MEAgrISys. the policy process. Many the banks and financial institutions admit that they are
getting very little proposals for agricultural credits and loans, and they even if
they did, they did not have the ‘information base’ to effectively assess the
viability of these proposals.
#8 of 2008

a collaborative
effort of:
Is the process backed by strong policy?
policy?
Naitram Ramnanan ‘Lack of national information policy’, ‘limited value placed on
CaRAPN member
and:
information’ and ‘unwillingness to share information’ are often listed
Diana Francis among the major limitations to developing information systems in agriculture in
Trade Policies and CARICOM. This is aside from the usual constraint of limited technical (human
Negotiations Programme
and information technology) capacity. Strong and enabling policy sends a
IICA Caribbean Region
powerful signal. It gives all a sense that the particular issue, target, industry or
enabled by: sector is important. It mobilises individuals to action! It provides a framework for
Technical Centre organising institutions, securing resources and implementing projects. Weak,
for Agricultural and ambiguous or no policy at all, also sends a powerful signal! This matter is not
Rural Cooperation
sufficiently important to warrant attention. It can be left up to its own devices or
(CTA –ACP)
market forces. Is this how we value information generally and specifically,
information for agricultural development? Then what have the many successive
and often simultaneously implemented information projects hoped to achieve?
The Views expressed Can progress still be made in such an environment?
herein are not necessarily
those of the CTA and IICA
 tying information needs
needs to development goals
What is this information?
Where is it?
Who has it?
Why do we need it?
How do we get it?
What do we do with it?

The IICA-
IICA-CTA project focused on tying information needs to development goals.
Such development goals are embodied the AgRu-
AgRu- development. These are competitiveness,
matrix framework which forms the base for building environmental sustainability, equity, governance,
a monitoring and evaluation information system to rural prosperity, food and nutrition security and
follow-up on progress and to measure impact. It was positioning ‘building’ a new type of information
developed mainly for the hemispheric AGRO Plan system for sustainable agriculture. The first four of
2002-2015. But because of the convergence of these objectives relate directly to four key
development priorities of Caribbean countries, it can dimensions of development – Economic, Ecological,
be easily applied to track progress and measure Socio-cultural/Human and Political-Institutional -
impact of national agricultural policies and that define the priorities for guiding actions and
programmes and regional ones as well. AgRu-matrix interactions of the partners. It is these interactions
defines three key groups of partners in the of the 3 partners along the 4 dimensions of
sustainable development of agriculture and rural development that leads to the definition of 12
communities. These are rural stakeholders, Purposes for actions. It is on these 7 macro-level
agriculture value chain actors and policy makers. strategic objectives and the 12 micro-level purposes
Each of these groups interacts and take actions that the MEAgrISys project is providing the
towards particular objectives. AgRu-matrix defines a framework for building modern information systems
set of seven strategic objectives for sustainable in agriculture.

Current national agricultural information systems are not sufficient to provide the information required for
planning, measuring progress and monitoring the impact of development actions. The project does not intend
to solve all national problems, or address all concerns regarding the weaknesses of agricultural information in
the Caribbean. The issues for the project were on building:

appreciation among information professionals, of the need to think outside the box, and see information
in a broader dimension;

awareness among agriculture stakeholders of the value of information and the importance of sharing that
information for the benefit of the ‘agriculture’ system.

synergies
synergies among existing interests and capacities on the ground; not re-inventing the wheel.

elements of an information system that are practical and mutually-reinforcing to cater to the needs of
sustainable development that links agriculture to quality of life. The system will provide a tool for
documenting and monitoring actions, evaluating progress and reporting results and expectations.

At the end, the project hopes to provide: (a) a conceptual framework and methodologies for obtaining
national Experiences and Expectations, (b) a set of common Indicators for measuring progress, and (c) an
improved method of reporting.
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Making Information Work for Agriculture: Indicators
We often hear about 'declining growth rates', or 'declining shares of agricultural GDP', or 'exports
increased by 5%', etc. These conclusions are based on economic indicators that measure the status for a
particular point in time, or change between points in time.

An ‘Indicator’ it is like a ‘pointer’ or ‘marker’ for a
something, at a point in time that has value and
expresses meanings. It is more than a statistic and is
based on accepted indicators to measure progress or
movement toward a stated goal or target. Indicators
are quantitative and must be measurable. Indicators
can help countries to track progress, measure
performance, identify trouble spots and show-up
important trends. This information is part of what is
needed to enable policy makers, business and
development organisations to redefine goals, realign
and monitor strategic actions and adopt further
decisions to improve agriculture and rural life at the
national, regional and hemispheric levels.
The MEAgrISys project has defined a set of Indicators
as the basis for measuring performance in each of
the macro objectives (national and sectoral) and each
of the Cell Purposes (micro level). The importance of
establishing credible and measurable Performance
Indicators at the micro level cannot be understated.
A sample of a list of variables (main topics) that can
be used to determine progress at the macro and
micro level, for which Indicators were defined to
guide data collection, analysis and reporting is
provided for two of the development dimensions,
namely Economic (production and trade) and
Ecological.

Economic - Macro Cell I:

I: promote Cell II: Integrate chains, foster Cell III: Promote enabling
Competitiveness competitive rural linkages and enhance national policies for
enterprises productivity competitive business

Position of Agriculture
Rural entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurial Activity and
Macroeconomic Policy
in National Economy; and Innovative Innovative Capacity; Environment and

Agricultural Capacity;
Chain organisation and Institutional Support;
Productivity;
Institutional Support; integration;
Trade Policy Regime and

Trade Dependence
Private Sector Investment; Extent of Openness;
and Performance;

Ecological - Macro Cell IV:

IV promote Cell V: Integrate chains, foster Cell V: Promote enabling
Environmental competitive rural linkages and enhance national policies for
Sustainability enterprises productivity competitive business

Status and quality of
Quality and use of
Application of sustainable
Integration of SRM in
natural resources: natural resources in/ resource management (SRM) Public Policy and
water, land, forests, close proximity to rural principles; Planning;
fisheries, areas;
Utilisation of Agro-chemicals;
Natural Hazard and

Resource Vulnerability
Community-Based
Capacity for Risk and Disaster Disaster Management
and Degradation Disaster Management Management in the Chain; and Adaptation to
Capacities; Climate Change;

The MEAgrISys project has defined a set of Indicators as a base for measuring performance in each
of the seven macro objectives and each of the micro purposes as defined by the 12 Cells of the AgRu-matrix,
and as illustrated above. Using these indicators, countries and institutions can make more informed decisions
on where capacity already exists to collect them and prioritise those in which capacities should be developed.

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Making Information Work for Agriculture: Experiences:
All countries take actions necessary to alleviate the constraints to agricultural development. Whether
these actions are undertaken by a Ministry of Agriculture (MoAs), non-governmental organisation (NGO), or
producer group, they seek to achieve a particular Purpose.

In spite of the numerous actions, by several players it can be used to show bias, if any, in the type of
in the agriculture-rural continuum, there is very actions taken in agricultural and rural development.
little, in terms of documentation of actions by type,
objectives and scope to enable comparative analysis It has been observed, that traditionally, actions in
and identification of best practices. Information on agricultural and rural development tended to focus
such Experiences is important since the challenges on production-trade issues, that is, in efforts to
encountered in implementation and progress made increase output, enhance productivity and
may hold the key to explaining the state of the competitiveness and expand exports. However, even
Indicators. These Experiences hold the information within the production-trade dimension, very few
necessary to explain the rate of progress as MoAs will have reported actions to ‘promote
measured by the quantitative performance Indicators.
ndicators competitive rural enterprises’ that are not linked to
farm production or small scale food processing.
The MEAgrISys project promotes the need to Rural development is wider than agriculture, a reality
‘document’ national actions undertaken, not only by that several Caribbean MoAs are not equipped or
MoAs, but also and importantly, by all other major positioned to deal with.
actors, particularly NGOs and producer organisations
themselves. It is the collective results of these More recently, there has been a flurry of actions to
actions that determine if and how output increases or address the environmental sustainability objectives.
decreases and the outcome of other objectives This largely due to the growing link between trade
measured by quantitative indicators. MEAgrISys also and the environment in international trade
promotes the need to document and integrate this negotiations, and consequently, the proliferation of
qualitative information on Experiences, with the environmental regulations, standards and
quantitative information provided by the Indicators. conventions, of which most Caribbean countries are
Why? Because documenting actions and challenges signatory. Hence in more recent times, actions under
provides a basis for comparing the types of actions environmental sustainability have become more
and approaches used by countries to address specific common within MoAs. What has been relatively silent
issues. Having such information in a database can in terms of actions spearheaded by, or monitored by
identify potential areas for horizontal cooperation MoAs are those that relate to improving the socio-
between and among countries on common issues. Is cultural-human aspect of development – equity.
also provides the basis for establishing linkages More often that not, such actions are not associated
among national, regional, hemispheric and with agriculture and hence the information is not
international actions and sharing of experiences to sought out and integrated into analyses on
optimise scare human, financial and institutional agriculture and rural development. Defining actions
resources. An analysis of national experiences can and experiences to improve governance usually
help to identify the pitfalls and define more effective centres on developing policy frameworks and/or
interventions and actions in the future. Particularly, strengthening farmers/producer organisations.

MEAgrISys promotes the need to collect, sort, store and analyse such national experiences, by each of
AgRu-matrix’s broad strategic objective and sub-purposes to lead to more holistic performance analyses,
promotion of success stores and sharing of good practices.
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Making Information
Information Work for Agriculture: Expectations
Expectations
The recent regional debates on agriculture saw opinions such as “agriculture is too risky”, “the
future for agriculture lies in agri-tourism” and “we need agriculture for our food security”. While
these opinions may be based on the particular stakeholder’s perception of past and current situation and
views of the future, they reflect an expectation. Expectations drive actions. And if they are largely negative
towards agriculture, then the majority of actions undertaken will be in non-agriculture activities.

A stark example of how Expectations impact business development projects among unemployed
decision-making is in the financial sector. rural youth maybe substantially different from the
Agriculture is perceived as too risky, and hence there expectations of these same rural youth, who may not
is an expectation on the part of financial institutions be inclined towards the same type of small business
that loans to agriculture will under-perform. Hence that the Policy maker had in mind. It is sometimes
the majority of commercial banks do not include the ‘discrepancy’ in expectations on a similar issue
agricultural loans in their portfolio. among the different players in the system that makes
or breaks a project towards a development objective.
These views and perceptions of key actors/players The only way such information can be obtained and
can be obtained through feedback mechanisms, such analyzed for use in policy and project decision
as, surveys and questionnaire, designed to determine making is to obtain feedback from all participants.
opinions and ‘hints’ of what to expect on a particular Often times, such feedback mechanisms come a part
issue. Expectations differ among the main categories of a post-project evaluation to determine ‘what went
of stakeholders in the agriculture-rural community wrong’.
continuum. These differences in expectations arise
from educational achievements, exposure to outside As far as possible, such feedback mechanisms must
influences, access to information and level of be specific and clear in terms of the objective of the
involvement in decision-making etc. Hence the questioning and simple to fill in. A sample of target
expectation of a policy maker with respect to small and issue specific survey is provided.

The MEAgrISys system advocates the need to institutionalize feedback mechanisms into information
systems that seek to explain the situation and performance of agriculture.
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 Moving forward with Information Projects!
Projects!

Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems are as important and necessary to sustainable
agricultural development, as is technology and finance. Any decision made in agriculture, at any and all
levels, use information and by using information, also generates information to be used.

The issue then becomes, do we have systems in Genuine Partnerships is essential

place to value, capture, store, integrate and analyse
the information such that it becomes a valuable input in building a more holistic
into decision making?
information system to monitor
Not yet, I believe! progress, measure performance and
Are we getting there?
Hard to tell!
evaluate the end product.
Even with all the various information projects in the
Caribbean, information systems development in
Partnerships will seek to ensure that the:
agriculture is still trying find its way to the top of the
projects defined work towards a common goal,
priority agenda. are practical and useful to most, if not all, the
stakeholders;
We all appreciate that information is important. We
policy environment is in place to place a high
all spend time, money and efforts to development value on information and hence enhance
information systems in agriculture. sustainability of efforts and results in
information projects;
One thing that this project experience has illustrated,
end products of projects will provide a base for
and none too subtly, is the need for participation and the continued development of the system;
GENUINE partnerships, at ALL levels.
process must be built on shared roles and
responsibilities of all major actors, including
the MoAs, development organizations and the
Details on AgRu-matrix as the base for MEAgrISys
‘stakeholders’ themselves. These roles will
can be found on www.carapn.net,, or by emailing
your request to Diana.Francis@iica.int however differ based on the mandates and
scope of decision-making and actions.

The expectation of having a perfect information system from the start as a precondition to
institutionalize the M&E process in agriculture and rural life is neither practical nor prudent! This
effort so far, has and continues to be a learning process in how to build an information base and
capacity to enable comprehensive and continuous monitoring, evaluation and feedback on the
impact of policies, programmes and actions on agricultural and rural development goals in the
Caribbean. There must be some minimum information system that establishes a base from which
progress can be measures against. The MEAgrISys project offers some progress towards
understanding that base from which we can build and benefit, through GENUINE PARTNERSHIPS!

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