From academia to the grassroots – open access, knowledge sharing and politics in Pacific Islands agriculture

Abstract

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This paper will take you through a story of how decades-long obstacles were overcome to create a knowledge sharing platform, one that meets all expectations and thus could be considered a success. And yet whilst the story does demonstrate success, it also harbours the possibility of failure. There are lessons to be shared.

This story is about an open agricultural knowledge sharing platform in the Pacific Islands, designed to serve the interests of the real grassroots – the farmers, foresters and fishers – as well as policy makers, planners, researchers, technical advisors and community workers.

As a case study, the development and operationalisation of the Pacific Agricultural Information System (PAIS) exemplifies the role of agency, one that helps bridge the gap between a particular situation, and the technology, services, skills, processes and procedures that could contribute to a solution. PAIS was built as an idea from the late 1980s that came out of discussions on the one hand among librarians and libraries, and on the other among soil scientists to address the needs of information access that would underpin research, as well as communicate research results more widely.

The choice of applications, the procedures developed, the training provided, the strategies to acquire and document content, the metadata deployed – all this led to the successful realisation of a discovery and sharing platform fit for purpose.

However, sustainability has not been assured. This is despite declarations of the value and importance of PAIS to the region, and even allocation of some funds to pay for platform hosting going forward. What has not happened is the wholesale buy-in by the management of university departments, research institutes and ministries of agriculture. Commitments were given, but not backed up by policy changes, fund allocations, strategic investments, and staff availability and training. The attitudes and actions of funding bodies in the region have not been helpful. Thus the lesson learned is that without political will, good ideas and strong motivation will wither on the vine.