Enhancing agricultural research with FAO's AGRIS and AGROVOC programs: A conversation with AfricaRice knowledge management expert
Updated: Oct 29
In a recent series of conversations with CGIAR Knowledge Management teams, Valentina De Col from ICARDA interviewed Murielle Anougbre, AfricaRice's Knowledge Management and Digitalization Assistant. They explored the value of CGIAR's collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on AGRIS and AGROVOC. AGRIS is a comprehensive bibliographic database covering agriculture and nutrition, while AGROVOC is a multilingual thesaurus encompassing a broad range of agricultural and related terms.
Benefits of being in AGRIS
Q: AfricaRice will soon share its knowledge products with AGRIS. What do you think will be the benefits of being part of AGRIS for your center?
Murielle: AfricaRice has recently joined AGRIS as a new data provider. Participating in AGRIS will significantly enhance our research outputs' visibility and global impact. AGRIS provides a global platform where users can easily discover and access AfricaRice's publications and datasets produced by our researchers. By sharing AfricaRice's content through CGSpace—CGIAR's main repository—we ensure our research reaches a diverse audience, from researchers and policymakers to practitioners worldwide. This visibility not only broadens the global impact of our work but also aligns with our goal of making agricultural knowledge more accessible. It could also foster future partnerships.
Importance for CGIAR to share research outputs via AGRIS
Q: From a broader perspective, do you think it is important for CGIAR to share its research outputs with a larger community and global users through AGRIS? Why?
Murielle: Yes, I believe it is very important. AfricaRice is part of OneCGIAR, which includes 15 centers working in different research fields. Sharing research results via AGRIS is key to expanding our global reach and maximizing the visibility of our work. AGRIS centralizes publications across CGIAR, making them widely accessible to a diverse community and global users. This increased visibility is crucial for amplifying the impact of our research, ensuring essential agricultural data is available to researchers, development practitioners, and decision-makers, and ultimately positively impacting lives. Additionally, it helps in fostering valuable partnerships and broadening collaboration opportunities.
The knowledge content from AfricaRice: types of content and subjects
Q: How would you describe the knowledge products produced and available from your center through your repository? What specific research areas does AfricaRice cover?
Murielle: At AfricaRice, our knowledge products encompass a variety of content, including book chapters, reports, journal articles, conference papers, brochures, briefs, presentations, blog posts, books, and videos. Our primary focus is on rice, aligning with our core mission of sustainable agricultural development in Africa. While our content covers a broad range of rice-related themes and aspects of the rice value chain, we also explore several other themes, such as socio-economics, marketing, food security, plant breeding, plant health, grain quality, gender, and climate change.
Importance of AGRIS for agricultural research institutions such as CGIAR
Q: Do you believe it is important for agricultural research institutions or networks, like CGIAR, to have access to a comprehensive bibliographic database like AGRIS? What specific benefits do you see?
Murielle: Yes, I think it's very important for agricultural research networks like CGIAR to have access to a database like AGRIS. It offers an opportunity to participate in an international network, provides accessible content for broader use, and enhances our global visibility. AGRIS is a centralized hub for locating relevant research, which is crucial for informed decision-making and effective collaboration. Additionally, it facilitates the forging of partnerships and informs investors and partners about our research outcomes.
Enhancing findability and interoperability through AGROVOC
Q: CGIAR also contributes to and uses AGROVOC as a common vocabulary. How does this collaboration enhance the findability and interoperability of your data?
Murielle: AGROVOC plays a crucial role in enhancing the findability and interoperability of our data. CGSpace submission form integrates AGROVOC, making it easy for us to tag our knowledge products with AGROVOC keywords. Using a standardized vocabulary ensures that our research is more searchable and consistent across various platforms. I recently joined the AGROVOC Curation Team and am excited to contribute to AGROVOC through training and collaboration. We occasionally face challenges in finding precise keywords that accurately describe our content, highlighting the need to keep our collaboration between CGIAR and FAO to expand AGROVOC, incorporating new terms that reflect emerging concepts in agricultural research. Additionally, ongoing training sessions are vital for knowledge managers to effectively use AGROVOC, including submitting new concepts.
This conversation illustrates the importance of platforms like AGRIS and standardized tools like AGROVOC in advancing agricultural research. By enhancing visibility and interoperability, these tools empower institutions like AfricaRice to contribute more effectively to global knowledge sharing and agricultural innovation, underscoring the importance of collaboration.
For more info on the CGIAR and FAO collaboration:
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