Agricultural information and documentation service for development cooperation

Archive of InfoAgrar's Tips of the Month

Worldometers - World statistics updated in real time

"Worldometers is managed by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format to a wide audience around the world.

Sources are carefully selected to include only data published by the most reputable organizations and statistical offices in the world.

The counters that display the real-time numbers are based on Worldometers’ algorithm that processes the latest and most accurate statistical data available together with its estimated progression to compute the current millisecond number to be displayed on each counter based on the specific time set on each visitor’s computer clock. Please refer to the frequently asked questions to learn more about the mechanism."

Source: http://www.worldometers.info/about.php

New Book: The development aid controversy. Do more, but do the right thing!

Time and time again, fundamental questions are raised by influential voices about the effectiveness of development cooperation. Aid has contributed nothing to economic growth, the critics say. It has not lessened poverty, and it often flows into the wrong pockets – those of the rich and powerful.

Since the end of 2006, Alliance Sud and its member organisations have been taking a deeper look at this fundamental criticism. That process culminated in the publication in mid-May 2008 of the book entitled «Der Streit um die Entwicklungshilfe. Mehr tun – aber das Richtige!» (The development aid controversy. Do more, but do the right thing!). From his standpoint as a specialist, author Peter Niggli shows what development cooperation can achieve, why the UN Millennium Goals are useful and why more must be done.

The Director of Alliance Sud cautions against losing sight of the limitations of development cooperation. He argues that development aid, albeit important, is no more than a complement to development processes. It is successful and meaningful when its focus is to improve the living conditions of the poorest and offer them new hope. Today, however, much of development funding is being misused to safeguard the interests of the «donors».

Based on Niggli's analysis, Alliance Sud and its member organisations outline their «Development Cooperation Agenda» in the second part of the book. It describes the guiding principles of and the most important challenges facing Switzerland's official development assistance.

The book is available in german and french. An english version is planned for November/December 2008.

More information and possibility to order (in german)

New FAO website

The recently redesigned FAO website gives users better access to a wealth of agricultural information

For example, a Knowledge Forum provides a direct gateway to the Organization's expertise through a series of interactive services:

Through "Ask FAO" users can interact directly with technical experts in particular fields of interest, and obtain answers to their questions.

"Best Practices" provides a series of summaries that introduce some best practices in FAO's areas of expertise.

FAO's "Thematic knowledge networks" are virtual communities of professional staff and collaborating centres with common interests related to sustainable agriculture and food security.

More info at www.fao.org

Fotolia - Access to thousands of photos

Fotolia offers a big collection of photos on all subject areas mostly at very low prices

Fotolia is the first worldwide social marketplace for royalty free stock images, allowing individuals and professionals to legally buy and share stock images and illustrations.

Fotolia offers the largest image bank of free and affordable royalty free photos and illustrations perfect for any medium, web or print.

Photographers and designers constantly update Fotolia with thousands of new photos and illustrations each day, while photographers and designers receive commission from each photo sold and revenue from advertising on the free section.

More info at www.fotolia.com

Marelibri (sea of books)

The /Marelibri.com/ association has been created in 2007 by five European sites, all dedicated to antiquarian and modern books, in order to realise a set of common initiatives. The five founding sites are:

* Antiqbook.com
* Livre-Rare-Book.com (about Livre-Rare-Book)
* Maremagnum.com (about Maremagnum)
* Prolibri.de (about Prolibri)
* Uniliber.com (about Uniliber)

The marelibri portal offers all the books on sale on each participating site under one unique search engine, which gives book lovers a choice of more than 20.000.000 different titles online, offered by more than 2.000 booksellers.

With these data www.marelibri.com rises to one of the largest European sites of old and modern books.

Search mask of marelibri

Babel Fish

Babel Fish is a web-based application developed by AltaVista (now part of Yahoo!) which machine translates text or web pages from one of several languages into another. It takes its name from the Babel fish, a fictional animal used for instantaneous language translation in Douglas Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The word Babel is a borrowed reference to the biblical account of the city of Babel and the various languages which were said to have arisen there.

Babel Fish can translate among English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The service makes no claim to produce a perfect translation: the best that is claimed is that it can show the gist of a page or text. Translations between European languages can be passable, but attempting to translate East Asian Languages to English often produces gibberish.

Website of Babel Fish with entry mask

Biological pest control

What calls for particular attention when cultivating papaya? What do the most important tomato pests look like, and how can they be prevented? These and many similar questions are answered by Infonet-BioVision – a new internet platform tailored to the needs of rural populations in East Africa.

Infonet-BioVision provides information about simple and ecologically appropriate measures for improving plant health in the most important crop species. Easily understandable texts offer advice with regard to cultivation, care and harvesting of each species. In addition, they point out prevention strategies and biological control methods for diseases and pests. Along with texts and illustrative photographs of specific crops and pests, the website also offers information about various methods and technologies of organic farming. The texts include feedback from local users, thus ensuring that the information provided meets their needs.

Infonet-BioVision is still being further developed. Alongside the existing chapter on plant health, further chapters on animal, human and environmental health are planned.

The African bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) is a pest of major importance in Africa. It attacks a variety of food, fibre, oilseed, fodder and horticultural crops. However, various biological control methods are available. (Photo: A. M. Varela, icipe)

Web 2.0 surveys and polls

Web 2.0 probably didn't pass you by, whether you are aware of it or not. Maybe you know and work with RSS, wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, podcasting and other tools and services.

Did you know that there are free tools that help you schedule events in a group of distant participants such as Doodle, or others with which you can create online surveys as e.g. SurveyMonkey? They can really make your every day life easier.

SurveyMonkey allows you to design surveys, to collect responses and to analyse results. It supports different types of questions from multiple choice to rating scales to open-ended text. You can create your survey in any language and change the look of your survey. SurveyMonkey offers a free version and paid accounts. The free version permits you to create surveys with up to 10 questions.

    
SurveyMonkey: example of a website survey and view of a summary

Brochure on rare Swiss livestock breeds

InfoAgrar has produced a brochure on farm animal genetic resources in Switzerland on the occasion of the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources and the accompanying exhibition in Interlaken (Switzerland).

The brochure can be downloaded as a PDF file on the website of the Federal Office for Agriculture FOAG, the print version is sold at cost and can be ordered at the Federal Office for Agriculture FOAG, info@blw.admin.ch.

Brochure on farm animal gentic resources in Switzerland (2985 kb | PDF)

Bettina Stäubli at the stand of the Federal Office for Agriculture FOAG in Interlaken, showing the new brochure.

Open Access: DOAJ

http://www.doaj.org/

Do you need information on a specific country?

The CIA World Factbook provides facts and figures on all countries of the world:

• Geography
• People
• Government
• Economy
• Communications
• Transportation
• Military
• Transnational Issues