FFTC Publications and Website on Asian Agriculture

2007-09-04

Bringing the benefits of scientific and technological advancement in agriculture to a wider audience

FFTC Publications

The Center's publication program is committed to ensure that the dissemination of agricultural information is focused on the right problem, is relevant and useful, is involving the right users, and is not duplicating the information disseminated by other organizations. The most recent and relevant agricultural technology and information collected by the Center through its various activities are documented and published in the forms of technical and extension bulletins, book series, newsletters, and a yearly publication on statistical agricultural indices in the region.

Major Agricultural Statistics

The sixth issue of this regular annual periodical was published in 2006. It gives an overview of Asian agriculture by showing important agricultural statistics and indicators, including food availability, self-sufficiency rate, and farm size in 21 Asian and Pacific countries. As well as the paper publication, an electronic version is available free of charge on the Center's website (www.fftc.agnet.org).

Good Agricultural Practice (Gap) in Asia and Oceania

This book is the proceedings of the international seminar on Technology Development for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in Asia and Oceania held on October 24-28, 2005 in Tsukuba, Japan. This volume contains valuable materials on such issues as 1) basic concepts and requirements of GAP to assure food safety in all stages of on-farm and post-production processes; 2) present status and perspectives on GAP and traceability in Asia and Oceania; 3) research and development for environmental impact assessment and risk management; and 4) information technologies to harness GAP and traceability.

Artificial Reproductive Biotechnology for Buffaloes

This book is the proceedings of the international seminar on Artificial Reproductive Biotechnologies for Buffaloes held on August 29-31, 2006 in Bogor, Indonesia. The volume contains papers on the status and challenges in buffalo production in Asia, as well as on artificial breeding techniques such as artificial insemination (AI), estrus synchronization, embryo transfer, embryo freezing, in vivo maturation (IVM), in vitro fertilization (IVF), and somatic cell cloning for buffalo.

Bulletins

Urban and peri-urban agriculture

The following bulletins are papers presented during the international workshop on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) in the ASPAC Region. These are intended as useful reference materials toward a better understanding of the challenges posed by urbanization, and the way that UPA can confront those challenges and take advantage of opportunities offered by the urban economy.

EB 575 Urban harvest: a CGIAR global program on urban and peri-urban agriculture
- Gordon Prain
EB 576 Urban agriculture in Asia: lessons from Japanese experience
- Kunio Tsubota
EB 577 Challenges and various developmental strategies in the Korean urban/peri urban agriculture
- Woong Kwon
EB 578 Recycling of wastewater from pig farms in urban and peri-urban agriculture
- Supamard Panichsakpatana

Agricultural cooperatives in Asia

The following bulletins are based on paper presentations during the international seminar on Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia: Innovations and Opportunities for the 21st Century. The papers contain valuable knowledge and information on successful innovative cooperative practices in view of the changing Asian rural landscape in recent decade, and how cooperatives have contributed greatly to the development of modern agricultural production base and helped strengthen farmer's household economy by facilitating market access and competitiveness.

EB 579 Agricultural cooperatives in Thailand
- Suwanna Thuvachote
EB 580 Agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam
- Nguyen Van Nghiem

Database on alien invasive species

The following bulletins, based on papers presented during the international workshop on Development of Database (APASD) for Biological Invasion, discuss the economic damage and ecological impacts caused by these invasive alien species (IAS) in the region and the importance of sharing recent information in resolving and minimizing the damage caused by these species through the APASD database.

EB 581 Current status of the database (APASD) and its international network
- Atsushi Mochizuki
EB 582 Current status and development of plant pest information management system in Taiwan
- Ying Yeh

Area-wide management of insect pests

Based on paper presentations during the international seminar on Area-wide Management of Insect Pests, the following bulletins showcase the applicability of AWA as integrated into management programs for some key insect pests by small-scale farmers.

EB 583 Public and private partnerships in area-wide fruit fly pest management for the benefit of farmers: the Hawaii experience
- Ronald F.L. Mau
EB 584 Exporting fruit from low fruit fly prevalence zones with a multiple mitigation systems approach
- Eric B. Jang
EB 585 Area-wide control of the oriental fruit fly and melon fly in Taiwan
- Tze-chung Huang

Management of soil-rhizosphere system

The following bulletins are based on papers presented during the international workshop on Sustainable Management of Soil Rhizosphere System for Efficient Crop Production and Fertilizer Use. The papers present valuable information on innovative technologies and strategies to maintain good soil fertility, effective fertilizer use, beneficial microorganism populations, and crop quality in the soil-rhizosphere system.

EB 586 Fertility Management of the Soil Rhizosphere System for Efficient Fertilizer Use in Vegetable Production
- Chin-Hua Ma
EB 587 Production of Organic Fertilizer from Solid Waste and its Utilization in Intensive Organic-based Vegetable Production and for Sustaining Soil Health and Productivity
- Nenita E. Dela Cruz
TB 173 The Potential Role of PEON (Phosphate Buffer-Extractable Organic Nitrogen) in the Soil for Plant Nutrition and its Implication for Organic Farming
- Noriharu Ae
TB 174 The Combined Use of Chemical and Organic Fertilizers and/or Biofertilizer for Crop Growth and Soil Fertility
- Jen-Hshuan Chen

FFTC Website on Asian Agriculture

Over the past 36 years, FFTC as a regional information center in the Asian and Pacific (ASPAC) region has played an immensely important role in collecting, exchanging, and disseminating information on a wide range of modern and practical technologies, covering the full spectrum of small farm needs and activities relevant to the region. Through its various activities like seminars and workshops, training courses, and regional surveys, we have accumulated a huge body of knowledge and information on agriculture made possible through the works of hundreds of people from member countries and partner institutions. Disseminated through publications, training courses and demonstration projects, these knowledge and information have given countless resource-poor farmers and extension specialists in the region new opportunities and new solutions to their problems.

Five years ago, the Center made available free-of-charge on its website the full text of all its publications for the last 15 years. Since then, the FFTC website and database has become an important information resource on Asian agriculture, particularly for the national extension systems in the region. The growing use of the FFTC website/publication database gave a larger number of people access to the Center's technical and practical information on sustainable agriculture.

In the five years since it first came online, the level of use of the FFTC website has tended to double each year. The website registered 76,000 requests in 2000; 417,000 requests in 2001; 822,472 in 2002; 1.6 million requests in 2003; 2.3 million requests in 2004; 3.02 million requests in 2005; and 3.12 million requests in 2006.

In 2006, the FFTC website underwent major redesign and renovation to give it a more international presence, and to upgrade its underlying technology to deliver all the functionality required to fully expand its technology dissemination to the widest clients possible. The key features of the renovated website are as follows:

New database elements such as:
- Highlights of accomplishments/announcements
- Agricultural news
- Research highlights database
- Additional fields for seminars/workshops and other activities
Faster, lighter, and less resource-intensive website
- Faster response time
- More user-friendly
- Allows editing of any web content
- More proficient and thorough search results
- Upgraded database system
- Training and support

We welcome everyone to this much improved, more user-friendly FFTC website, redesigned and renovated to enhance the Center's technology transfer mission, facilitate interaction and networking among partner institutions within the region, and make possible a more cost-effective way of disseminating practical information to our users, particularly the small-scale farmers.