FFTC Website Gains Wider Viewership

2008-12-17

Scientists, researchers and extension workers in agriculture are now more inclined than ever to go online when looking for easy access to scientific and technological information. Hence, FFTC made available free-of-charge on its website the full text of all its publications in the last 15 years. Since it was launched six years ago, the FFTC website with its publication database has now become an important information resource on Asian agriculture, particularly for the national research and extension systems in the Asian region. The growing use of the FFTC publication database gives a larger number of people easy access to the Center's technical and practical information on sustainable agriculture.

With the goal of making its website more user-friendly and to offer a wider range of information on Asian agriculture, the FFTC website was redesigned and renovated a year ago, giving it a more international presence, and upgrading its underlying technology to deliver all the functionality required to fully expand its technology dissemination and to reach the widest clients possible. By the end of 2007, the website registered an impressive performance with a total of 7.15 million hits. By September 2008, it has reached a peak performance of almost 8 million hits. Requests were mostly from scientists, researchers, students and extension workers not only in the Asian region but in many countries all over the world as well.

The publications uploaded onto the FFTC website are outputs of the various activities of the Center, particularly seminars and workshops. In almost four decades of existence, FFTC has accumulated a huge body of knowledge and information in agriculture made possible through the works of hundreds of people from member countries and partner institutions. Traditionally, these information are disseminated through publication mailing, reaching about 2,000 libraries and institutions in Asia. With the website, however, these knowledge and information can now be easily accessed by countless scientists, researchers and extension workers in the region, giving them new opportunities and new solutions to their agricultural concerns.

In the coming years, FFTC shall continue to enhance its 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 its users.

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  Figure 1 FFTC website gain wider viewership