Poor internet connection and irregular power supply in Cameroon has been identified as one of the stumbling blocks to the dissemination and sharing of agricultural related information amongst stakeholders in the country.
The problems were re-echoed in Yaounde recently, at the end of a two-day pre-evaluation workshop by members of the Regional Agricultural Information and Learning System, RAILS. The evaluation meeting took place at the multi-media centre of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, in Nkolbisson.
The RAILS National Focal Point Coordinator, Richard Awah Nche, recalled that the project known as the Promotion of Science and Technology for Agricultural Development in Africa, PSTAD, is funded through an executing agency - the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA, by the African Development Bank, ADB.
He said RAILS, which is a component of one of the projects also has an African Portal for Agriculture called erails platform, on which members disseminate agricultural information through the internet.
It was against a backdrop of pre-evaluating what the platform has been doing since the launching of the project in Cameroon in 2009 that members met recently.
Awah, who also moderated deliberations at the workshop told members that the meeting was holding on the heels of that of Accra in Ghana, where RAILS and other components of the PSTAD project were evaluated on August 12 and 13, 2014. He said the outcome of the meeting would constitute elements for the final evaluation of the project.
Meanwhile, the erails facilitator in Cameroon, Martin Minkem, in a presentation, revisited the objectives and the advantages of the platform. He cited the sharing of knowledge on issues of agriculture, creation and hosting of websites of member institutions, providing internet connectivity on the continent, facilitating quick accessibility to scientific data and the sustainable use of new information and communication technologies as some of the benefits of the RAILS project.
After brainstorming in three working groups and responding to some key questions, members of the national RAILS team accepted that it was a plus in succeeding to bring together over 20 members representing their institutions on the platform.
They expressed the desire to see the team enlarged to incorporate agricultural producers, council workers, development partners, rural and community radio promoters as well as other media outlets.
The wish to see a diversified erails platform, attractive, rich in content, more interactive and used oftenly by agricultural development actors was also recorded. The participants noted that for such a goal to be attained, appropriate and sufficient equipment should be provided as well as the training of more competent and multi-dimensional facilitators.
Recommendations registered, bordered on the training of the platform members on all aspects of new information and communication technologies; techniques of writing especially scientific reports to be posted on the various websites and the follow-up of trainees, amongst others.
Apart from internet connectivity problems and epileptic power supply in the country that tend to hamper the smooth functioning of websites of the erails platform in Cameroon, the lack of will by some policy makers to promote the initiative, inadequate technical and financial resources, were some of the difficulties also identified.
