| Name: | Laurie Drinkwater |
| Email: | led24@cornell.edu |
| Phone Number: | ( 607) 255-9408 |
| FAX Number: | ( 607) 255-9998 |
| Address: | 124 Plant Science
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853 |
Curriculum Vitae:
Education:
PhD, Department of Zoology, University of
California, Davis, Sept., 1986.(Area of emphasis:
physiological ecology)
BA, Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa,
Mar., 1978.
Chronological Work History:
September 2000-present, Department of
Horticulture, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Associate Professor
Conduct basic research on soil nutrient cycling
processes in intensive annual cropping systems,
emphasizing mechanisms that control carbon,
nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. Teach one
graduate course in the area of agroecology and co-
teach an upper division course in soil ecology.
July 1995-May 2000, Rodale Institute, Kutztown, PA
Director, US Regenerative Agriculture Resource
Center
July 1993-July 1995, Associate Director,
Research, Department of Agronomy, Pennsylvania
State University, State College, PA
1996-August 2000, Adjunct Assistant Professor,
Department of Vegetable Crops, University of
California, Davis, CA
1992-1993, Asst. Research Faculty, Systems
Ecologist; 1988-1992, Post-Doctoral Researcher,
Dept. of Zoology and Dept. of Botany, University
of California, Davis, CA
1987-88, Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Zoology,
University of Calif., Davis, CA
Refereed Publications (1995-present):
Puget, P. and L.E. Drinkwater. 2001. Short-term
dynamics of root and shoot-derived carbon from a
leguminous green manure. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. In
press.
Drinkwater, L.E., R.R. Janke, and L. Longnecker.
2000. Effects of reduced tillage intensities on
nitrogen dynamics and crop productivity in legume-
based cropping systems. Plant and Soil. 227:99-
113.
Reider, C., W. Herdman, L.E. Drinkwater and R.
Janke. 2000. Yields and nutrient budgets under
composts, raw dairy manure and mineral
fertilizer. Compost Science and Utilization.
8:328-339
Wander M.M. and L.E. Drinkwater. 2000. Fostering
soil stewardship in the U.S. through soil quality
assessment. Applied Soil Ecology. 15:61-73.
Jaenicke, E.C. and L.E. Drinkwater. 1999. Sources
of productivity growth during the transition to
alternative cropping systems. Agricultural and
Resource Economics Review. 169-181.
Drinkwater, L.E., M.W. Wagoner & M. Sarrantonio.
1998. Legume-based systems have reduced losses of
nitrogen and carbon. Nature. 396:262-265.
Buyer, J.S. and L.E. Drinkwater 1997. Comparison
of substrate utilization assay and fatty acid
analysis of soil microbial communities. Journal
of Microbiological Methods. 30:3-11.
Douds, D.D., L. Galvez, M. Franke_Snyder, C.
Reider & L.E. Drinkwater. 1997. Effect of compost
addition and crop rotation upon VAM fungi. Ag.,
Ecosystems and Environment. 65:257-266.
Hu, S., N.J. Grunwald, A.H.C. van Bruggen, G.R.
Gamble, L.E. Drinkwater, C. Shennan, and M.W.
Demment. 1997. Short-term effects of cover crop
incorporation on soil carbon pools and nitrogen
availability. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 61:901-911.
Letourneau, D.K., L.E. Drinkwater, and C.
Shennan. 1996. Soil management effects on crop
quality and insect damage in commercial organic
and conventional tomato fields. Agriculture,
Ecosystems, and Environment. 57:179-187.
De Luca, T.H., L.E. Drinkwater, B.A. Wiefling,
and D.M. Denicola. 1996. Free-living nitrogen-
fixing bacteria in temperate cropping systems:
Influence of nitrogen source. Biology and
Fertility of Soils. 23:140-144.
Drinkwater, L.E., Workneh, F., Letourneau, D.K.,
van Bruggen, A.H.C., and C. Shennan. 1995.
Fundamental differences in organic and
conventional agroecosystems in California.
Ecological Applications. 5:1098-1112.
Invited reviews
Drinkwater L.E. and M.M. Wander. Forthcoming. A
logical link: Carbon management and resource use
efficiency in agricultural systems. Advances in
Agronomy.
Drinkwater, L.E. 2000. Using plant species
composition to restore soil quality and ecosystem
function. Invited paper, in press. To be
published in: Designing and testing crop
rotations for organic farming. Olesen, J.E., R.
Eltun, M.J. Gooding, E.S. Jensen, and U. Kopke,
Eds. FOJO Report No. 5, Danish Institute of
Agricultural Sciences.
Drinkwater, L.E., C.A. Cambardella and C.W. Rice.
1996. Potentially mineralizable N as an indicator
of active soil N. IN: Handbook of Methods for
Assessment of Soil Quality. Doran, J. and A.J.
Jones, Eds.
Shennan, C., L.E. Drinkwater, A.H.C. van Bruggen,
D.K. Letourneau, F. Workneh. 1991. Comparative
study of organic and conventional tomato
production systems: an approach to on-farm
research. IN Alternative Agriculture Part 2. J.P.
Madden, ed. National Academy Press. pp 109-132.
Relevant Extension Publications
Drinkwater, L.E., Reider, C. and S. Connelly.
2001. Protocol for Soil Health Demonstrations.
Rodale Institute and Northeast Regional SARE.
Peterson, C., L.E. Drinkwater and P. Wagoner.
1999. The Farming Systems Trial: The first
fifteen years. Rodale Institute.
Drinkwater, L.E. and C. Oshins. 1998. Soil Health
Training: Teaching tools and curriculum. Rodale
Institute and Penn State University.
Chaney, D., L.E. Drinkwater,, and S. Pettygrove.
1993. Organic soil amendments and fertilizers.
Special Publication. University of Calif. Press.
Pub. #21505.
| Name: | Erick C. M. Fernandes |
| Email: | ecf3@cornell.edu |
| Phone Number: | (607) 255-5405 |
| FAX Number: | (607) 255-1005 |
| Address: | 624 Bradfield Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853 |
Curriculum Vitae:
Education:
BS, 1982, University of Aberdeen, Scotland,
(Forestry)
Ph.D., 1991, North Carolina State University, USA
(Soil Science)
Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French,
Kiswahili, Hindustani
International Experience:
Long-term: Amazonia: Brazil (90-2002), Peru (87 -
89); Tropical Highlands: Kenya (82- 86)
Short-term: Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, China,Costa
Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia,
India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Nepal,
Nigeria, Panama, Tanzania, Thailand, Zambia,
Zimbabwe.
Professional Experience:
June 1995-present, Cornell University, Professor
of Tropical Cropping Systems & Agroforestry
Develop and sustain a program of teaching and
research on biogeochemical processes in
biologically complex tropical agroecosystems. A
key research challenge is to design systems with
appropriate crop, tree and livestock associations
and rotations that are both productive and
sustainable. Key guiding principles include the
optimal management of natural resources and
environmentally beneficial impacts. To ensure
that farmers adopt these systems, I involve
farmers in the diagnosis of constraints and
design of alternatives and pay careful attention
to biophysical, biogeochemical, social, and
economic factors. The rediscovery, selection and
use of traditional food crop species, the
harnessing of the beneficial effects of
mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing symbionts,
and the use of integrated pest management
strategies, will enhance the resilience of these
systems. I hypothesize that such systems will
provide farmers with food security even during
outbreaks of pests, drought, and years of low
crop prices. Surviving lean years is the key to
sustainability for many smallholder, cropping
systems.
Jan 1998 to March 1999, Seconded to the
International Center for Research in Agroforestry
(ICRAF)as Coordinator of the Global Alternatives
Slash & Burn (ASB) agriculture program.
Provide scientific leadership for the ASB
research, program at 3 benchmark rainforest sites
(Brazil Indonesia, and Cameroon). The goal of the
ASB program is to develop sustainable
agricultural and agroforestry systems and
appropriate land use policies at forest margins
and thus stop the need for further burning and
destruction of rainforests in the tropics. A
major objective of this collaborative arrangement
with ICRAF was to explore and develop research
and funding opportunities for students and
faculty at Cornell to participate in the
international ASB program. Specific research foci
include agricultural productivity, soil nutrient
cycling, above and belowground biodiversity,
greenhouse gas emissions, household and community
decision-making processes and local institutional
endowments.
Provided leadership and guidance to 30 senior
scientists from CGIAR Centers, National
Agricultural Research Centers, and collaborating
Universities operating in an integrated and
multidisciplinary, global program.
1990-1995, N.C. State University & EMBRAPA-Center
for Agroforestry Research, Leader of Tropical
Soils Program,Brazil.
Initiated & managed a program of
interdisciplinary research in the Western Amazon
to rehabilitate deforested land, degraded forest
fallows, and abandoned pastures; and to test
alternative tree and Brazil crop production
systems with the potential to minimize slash and
burn agriculture in primary forests. A major
focus of the program was the training of
Brazilian scientists via collaborative research.
Other duties: Supervised MS & Ph.D. student
research. Provided technical advice and promote
collaboration between CPAA and other governmental
and non-governmental research and training
institutions in the Western Amazon.
1988-1990, TropSoils Program, N. C. State
University,Estacion Experimental,Yurimaguas, Peru
Graduate Researcher: Biological Nitrogen Fixation
(BNF) Program.
Developed and supervised a BNF program to study
the effects of rock phosphate & VA mycorrhizae
the productivity of tropical tree and pasture
legumes.
1986-1988, Soil Science Dept., N.C. State
University, Research and Teaching Assistant
Assisted in teaching a "Forest Soils" course.
1982-1985, International Council for Research in
Agroforestry (ICRAF),Kenya, Research Associate
Initiated the development of a database on
Agroforestry Systems in the Tropics. Traveled to
10 countries in Africa, India & Nepal on surveys
of smallholder farming systems. Data collected
via interviews with farmers was analyzed to
identify constraints & potentials for improvement.
1981, UNESCO/MAB Program Integrated Project on
Arid Lands (IPAL), Kenya. Short-term Research
Assistant
Data collection for BS thesis: Biophysical
characterization of a silvopastoral system
involving the use by nomads of an Acacia tortilis
woodland in a semi-arid area of Northern Kenya.
Recent Publications in Refereed Journals:
Feldpausch, T.R., Rondon, M.R., Fernandes,
E.C.M., Riha, S.J. and Wandelli, E.V. Carbon and
nutrient accumulation in secondary forests
regenerating from degraded pastures in the
central Amazon. Ecological Applications.
(Accepted - pending minor revision).
McHugh, O.V., Steenhuis, T.S., Fernandes, E.C.M.
and Uphoff, N.T. Water-use efficiency in
alternate wet-dry and flood irrigation practices
in the system of rice intensification (SRI) of
Madagascar. Water Management in Rice (Accepted -
pending minor revisions)
Fernandes, E.C.M.; Perin, R.; Wandelli, E.; de
Souza, S.G.; Matos, J.C.; Arco-Verde, M.;
Ludewigs, T. and Neves, A. Designing and
establishing agrosilvopastoral systems to
rehabilitate abandoned pastureland in the
Brazilian Amazon. Agroforestry Systems.
(Submitted 2001). Revised and submitted to
Agroforestry Systems in 2002.
Barros, E., Neves, A., Blanchart, E.; Fernandes,
E.C.M., Wandelli, E. and Lavelle, P. Soil macro
and mesofauna dynamics in agroforestry systems on
degraded pastureland in the Brazilian Amazon.
Agroforestry Systems. (Submitted 2001). Revised
and submitted to Agroforestry Systems in 2002.
McKerrow, A. and Fernandes, E.C.M. Secondary
species composition, and carbon and nutrient
stocks in abandoned pastures in the central
Amazon. Forest Ecology and Management (submitted
2001) In revision. To be submitted to Forest
Ecology and Management in July 2002.
Fernandes, E.C.M. Growth rates, biomass
accumulation and nutrient stocks in 14
provenances of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp. on
a typic, Paleudult in the western Amazon. Forest
Ecology and Management (submitted 2001). Under
revision for submission to Forest Ecology and
Management in August 2002.
Fernandes, E.C.M. Biomass and nutrient stocks in
eight leguminous tree species on a degraded
Oxisol in the Brazilian Amazon. Forest Ecology
and Management (submitted 2001). Under revision
and incorporation of new data for submission to
Forest Ecology and Management in August 2002.
Tapia-Coral, S.C., Luizao, F.E. and Fernandes,
E.C.M. Carbon and nutrient stocks of the litter
layer in agroforestry systems in the central
Amazon. Agroforestry Systems. Submitted in 2002.
Fernandes, E.C.M. The effect of rock phosphate
and native vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
on the growth of leguminous tree and pasture
species on an Ultisol in the western Amazon.
(Submitted to Mycorrhiza in July 2002).
Fernandes, E.C.M. Shoot pruning effects on
nodulation and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae
associated with tree and pasture legumes on an
Ultisol in the western Amazon. (Submitted to
Mycorrhiza in July 2002).
Dauphiné, N., Fernandes, E.C.M. and Lassoie, J.
Ecological niches, local uses and trade of
medicinal plants with domestication potential in
the highlands of eastern Madagascar. Submitted
to Economic Botany in July 2002.
Dossa, E.L., Fernandes, E.C.M. and Reid, W.S.
Carbon sequestration and nutrient stocks in a
Coffea canephora plantation with and without
shade of Albizia adianthifolia in Southwestern
Togo. Submitted to Agriculture, Ecosystems and
the Environment in July 2002.
Joelibarison, Fernandes, E.C.M. and McHugh, O.
Productivity and nutrient use efficiency in a
traditional system of rice intensification (SRI)
and the best rice cultivation practice in eastern
Madagascar. Final draft in committee review at
Cornell. To be submitted to Agriculture,
Ecosystems and the Environment in July 2002.
McCaffery, K.A., Fernandes, E.C.M. and Rondón,
M.A. Aboveground Biomass, Carbon and Nutrient
Stocks in Agroforestry Systems and Secondary
Forest in the Central Amazon. Final draft in
committee review at Cornell. To be submitted to
Agroforestry Systems in July 2002.
McCaffery, K.A., Rondón, M.A. and Fernandes,
E.C.M. The influence of phosphorus, lime and
gypsum on the growth of Inga edulis, Senna
reticulata and Gliricidia sepium and on soil
chemical properties of a degraded Oxisol in the
central Amazon. Final draft in committee review
at Cornell. To be submitted to Restoration
Ecology in July 2002.
McHugh OV, Steenhuis TS, Fernandes ECM,
Joelibarison (2002). Factors influencing
alternate wet-dry and non-flooded rice irrigation
practices in Madagascar. Final draft in committee
review at Cornell. To be submitted to
Agriculture, Ecosystems and the Environment in
July 2002.
Feldpausch, T.R., Fernandes, E.C.M. and Riha,
S.J. Structure and leaf area in secondary forests
regenerating from degraded pastures in central
amazônia. Final draft in committee review at
cornell. To be submitted to Journal of Ecology in
august 2002.
Kuczak, C.N., Fernandes, E.C.M., Lehmann, J. and
Rondon, M. Phosphorus fractions in earthworm
casts and soils of agroforestry systems, pasture,
and secondary forest in the Central Amazon Basin.
Thesis defense in June 2002. First draft in
committee review at Cornell. To be submitted to
Biology and Fertility of Soils in August 2002.
Styger, E. D. and Fernandes, E.C.M. The
vegetative structure, biomass and nutrient stocks
of natural fallow vegetation along a land
degradation gradient in the rainforest region of
eastern Madagascar. First draft in preparation.
To be submitted to Forest Ecology and Management
in August 2002.
Styger, E. D. and Fernandes, E.C.M. Impact of
slash-and-mulch and guano phosphate on soil
quality and the productivity of upland rice-bean-
ginger cropping system in the rainforest region
of eastern Madagascar. First draft n preparation.
To be submitted to Agriculture, Ecosystems and
the Environment in August 2002.
Styger, E. and Fernandes, E.C.M. Mycorrhiza
fungal diversity as impacted by the loss of
endemic, rainforest plants in Madagascar. First
draft in preparation. To be submitted to
Mycorrhiza in September 2002.
Ingram, J.S.I. and Fernandes, E.C.M. (2001)
Managing Carbon Sequestration in Soils: A Note on
Concepts and Terminology. Agriculture Ecosystems
& the Environment. 87:111-117.
Gallagher, R.S. and Fernandes, E.C.M. (1999) Weed
management through short-term improved fallows in
tropical agroecosystems. Agroforestry Systems.
47: 197-221.
Styger, E., Rakotoarimanana, J.E.M., Rabevohitra,
R. and Fernandes, E.C.M. (1999) Indigenous fruit
trees of Madagascar: potential components of
agroforestry systems to improve human nutrition
and restore biological diversity. Agroforestry
Systems. 46: 289-310.
Fernandes, E.C.M., Motavalli, P., Castilla, C.,
Mukurumbira, L. (1997) Management control of soil
organic matter dynamics in tropical land-use
systems. Geoderma. 79: 49-67.
Fernandes, E.C.M., Biot,Y., Castilla, C., Canto,
A.C, Matos, J.C., Garcia, S., Perin, R. and
Wandelli, E. (1997) The impact of selective
logging and forest conversion for subsistence
agriculture and pastures on terrestrial nutrient
dynamics in the Amazon. Ciencia e Cultura. 49
(1): 34-47.
- Project Objectives:
- Make optimal use of available resources for agricultural extension,
resident education, and research by sharing resources between participating
institutions.
- Facilitate interaction among leading agricultural scientists.
Explain how the Project relates to the Program Objective(s) and
how the Projgect will contribute to achieving these over-all Program Objective(s).
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The Worldwide Soil Health Information Portal is
an electronic gateway to information on soil
health, small-farm soil management and associated
organic agriculture topics available globally on
the Internet. The Portal was developed with the
support of an ADEC grant during 2001-2002, and
went live in March 2002.
The objective of the Portal is to facilitate
access to available information and to make
optimal use of soil health resources available on
the World Wide Web in extension, research and
education. The goal is to organize relevant
information so that is easily accessible to
target groups and is delivered in a way that it
is useful and improves their capacity to manage
soil health issues. The Portal draws on
information related to both temperate and
tropical zones, as much of the knowledge that is
relevant in the tropics can benefit growers in
temperate climates, particularly organic farmers
and producers with small farms. This kind of
service is critical if U.S. scientists, extension
personnel and producers are to keep pace with
the information revolution and have access to
knowledge that contributes to healthier, more
competitive agriculture, with less environmental
degradation.
Currently, the Portal consists of a database
containing about 700 entries (annotated links)
searchable by topic, country, climate,
topography, or resource type, and browsable by
topic. Information can also be accessed through
categorized listings for links to services,
products, events, publications, audiovisual
materials and electronic discussion groups. An
on-line reference service as well as several
learning modules that address knowledge gaps in
soil health are available. The Portal provides a
bridge between U.S. and foreign scientists by
linking three ongoing electronic discussion
groups in English, Spanish and French, and
providing regular summaries of traffic.
OBJECTIVES
This project seeks to make the Portal a more
powerful and effective tool by: 1) actively
engaging potential users (at both the field and
institutional levels), with increased emphasis on
reaching "electronically marginalized" or
underserved groups; 2) enhancing the
relevance of the Portal’s information by adding
requested extension material and monthly research
highlights; and 3) significantly improving content
delivery by adapting advanced Internet technology
to empower partners in the management of the
portal, and enhance partner activity.
Diversifying and Engaging Stakeholders
At the field level we will use a combination of
surveys, workshops and one-on-one meetings to
engage farmers and extension staff. We will focus
on the following three groups groups: 1) organic
farmers associated with the Northeast Organic
Network, or NEON, which is an innovative
consortium of farmers, researchers, extension
educators and grassroots non-profits working
together to improve organic farmers' access to
research and technical support throughout the
northeastern region of the U.S. Organic farmers
represent a population of U.S. farmers
traditionally underserved in terms of both
research and information programming; 2) in New
York State, we will work directly with an
estimated 200 conventional and organic
farmers and extension workers in the NYS
Cooperative Extension's Soil Health Program Work
Team (PWT); and 3) resource-limited women farmers
in Colombia, Latin America, where we will focus
in on 145 women in two women’s horticultural
cooperatives associated with Artemisa (a rural
development NGO). Material relevant to a fourth
underserved group, Spanish-speaking U.S. farmers,
will be added to the Portal’s searchable
database. However, no direct field links will be
made to this specific user group during this
phase of the project.
To extend its international reach, the project
will work with several new institutional
partners: Brazil (Agroforestry and Land
Rehabilitation in the Amazon Project); Colombia
(Artemisa, a local NGO with links to Ecofundo, an
umbrella group for over 100 Colombian
environmental and rural development NGOs);
Honduras (Panamerican School of Agriculture in
Zamorano); and southern/eastern Africa
(Rockefeller Foundation-funded Soil Fertility
Taskforce, which has links to wider regional and
national soil fertility networks). These groups,
as well as the original TropSCORE Consortium and
AgNIC Alliance partners will provide regular
feedback on content and services, forward content
in several languages and link the Portal with end-
users of their own constituencies.
Enhancing Content Relevance and Delivery
Content relevance, which is integral to the
Portal, will continue to be fine-tuned as we
respond to user feedback. While the coming year
will allow us to better understand the needs of
underserved target groups, previous evaluations
highlighted the importance of adding specific
practical and research information as well as
expanding the interactive listservs and reference
services. Accessing specific requested material,
both off- and on-line, will be an important part
of the project.
The Soil Health Portal, which is an affiliate
member of the Agricultural Network Information
Center (AgNIC), is an active partner in the next-
generation AgNIC Portal's information delivery
development. The Soil Health Portal has been
designated as a prototype to help develop and
test a variety of cutting-edge technologies from
managing databases of agricultural information
and interlinked discussion forums to advanced
reference services and current awareness services
that track and summarize selected topics. The
Soil Health Portal will also be used to explore
development of several emerging portal
technologies: ontological support for enhanced,
Semantic-Web like functionality, "channels" (Web
services) and the user-customization they
provide, and distributed databases. Ontology
development is intended to give computers an
expanded vocabulary that allows them to respond
to user queries in a contextually meaninful way.
The Web services channels will ultimately
allow content customization for local communities
and the distributed database deployment will be
instrumental in allowing partners' search engines
to “drill” into each other's databases, thereby
increasing the quantity of pre-screened quality
Web sites that can be found through the Portal.
- Description of Agricultural Communication Network to be Developed
or Utilized.
The agricultural communication network includes
existing partners as well as new partners.
Core Network:
1) Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC,
http://www.agnic.org/), which links the Portal
into the Land-Grant University system and the
National Agricultural Library via a central
gateway;
2) Tropical Soil Cover and Organic Resource
Exchange (TropSCORE Consortium)
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/
TropSCORE.html), which provides access to
partners, listservs and resources in Asia, Africa
and Latin America;
3) Cornell International Institute for Food,
Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD)-sponsored
Management of Organic Inputs in Soils of the
Tropics (MOIST
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/
home2.html) builds, maintains, and promotes the
Portal; and
4) Mann Library
(http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/), which uses the
portal to explore next-generation Internet
technology to improve user access and information
delivery.
New Field-Level Partnerships:
Individual groups that provide strong links to
field-level users include:
1)NY State Soil Health Program Work Team (PWT);
2)Northeast Organic Network (NEON,
www.neon.cornell.edu/); and
3)Artemisa, a Colombian NGO that works with
several local women's horticultural cooperatives
interested in the Portal (Palmas Unidas [60
participants] and Asociacion de Mujeres
Organizados de Yolombo [90 participants]).
New Institutional Links:
Other new research-oriented partners that will
use, evaluate and provide resources for the
Portal include:
1) Soil Fertility Taskforce for Africa;
2) Panamerican School for Agriculture at Zamorano
in Honduras (through Dr. Phil Arneson); and
3) Agroforestry and Land Rehabilitation in the
Amazon Project (a project collaborating with
Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Programme)in
Brazil.
The Agriculture Network Information Center
(AgNIC) provides the world community with access
to agricultural, environmental, and food-related
information, resources, and data through a
Web-based gateway system. Begun in 1995 as an
initiative of the National Agricultural Library
and four Land-Grant universities, a formal
alliance structure is now in place with 29 fully
contributing partner institutions, 11 supporting
partner organizations, and 38 operational,
subject-based Web sites. Using a centers-of-
excellence approach, each participating
institution takes a leadership role in building
Web resources on a particular aspect of
agricultural knowledge and in offering timely,
online reference services in support of their
selected topic(s).
Through TropSCORE and Cornell University, the
Worldwide Soil Health Portal became an AgNIC
affiliate in 2000, which allowed it to link
into other AgNIC members sites through the
central gateway. The project will have
significant impact on the Alliance as it will
allow the Soil Health Portal to be used as a
prototype for emerging Internet portal
technologies that can be extended to other
Alliance members. These technologies, to be
developed by Mann Library programmers, will not
only increase functionality for individual portal
users but will eventually allow search engines of
portals in different institutions to communicate
with each other directly.
The TropSCORE Consortium is a voluntary
association of regional and international members
formed in March 1999 to collaboratively address
constraints to information and resource access
by strengthening efforts to acquire, synthesize,
exchange, and disseminate information about
low external-input approaches for improving
smallholder farming systems in the tropics and
sustainably managing the natural resource base.
TropSCORE consists of non-governmental
development organizations and research and
educational institutions with a common interest
in cover crops, green manures and other organic
means of maintaining healthy soils in the
tropics. Consortium members currently include: 1)
The Management of Organic Inputs in Soils of the
Tropics (MOIST) Group of the Cornell
International Institute for Food, Agriculture and
Development (CIIFAD); 2) the International Cover
Crops Clearinghouse (CIDICCO,
http://rds.org.hn/miembros/cidicco/) in Honduras;
3)Cover Crops Information and Seed
Exchange Center for Africa (CIEPCA,
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/CIEPCA
/home.html) in Benin; and 4) ECHO, an
international NGO located in Florida. (see
collaborating partners, section 5 for more
information on these organizations).
TropSCORE collaboration substantially increases
the Portal's value as Consortium members are
responsible for maintaining the listservs that
allow continuous dialogue on soil health to be
linked into the Web site. CIDICCO co-manages the
Spanish listserv (coberagri-L, with over 100
members), CIEPCA manages the traffic on its
French language West Africa-based list (evecs-L,
with 80 members) and MOIST manages the English
traffic on mulch-L, which currently has over 250
subscribers worldwide. Summarzing and cross-
posting is managed through TropSCORE and
Portal staff. As part of the enhanced Portal,
the listservs will also serve the wider soil
health network of users by responding to queries
from the Portal's expanded "on-line reference
services."
- Agricultural Communication Network Programming:
- Agricultural Communications and Education
- Agricultural Profitability and Sustainability
- Agronomy
- Environmental and Natural Resources
Describe the Programming and how it will contribute to achieving
the Objective(s).
We propose to use a three-pronged approach to
ensure that Worldwide Soil Health Information
Portal reaches target audiences with the most
relevant and useful information possible. This
approach involves: 1) a dynamic outreach
initiative in which project staff work directly
with potential users to acquaint them with the
Portal services, to understand their information
needs, and refine the Portal's functionality; 2)
identifying and adding specific practical and
scientific content requested by diverse users;
and 3) adapting the latest advances in Web
services and portal technologies to bring
together widely distributed and highly divergent
information resources into an easily managed and
customizable interface.
OUTREACH PROGRAMMING
In order to ensure the Portal's continued value
to scientists and to disseminate its content more
widely, an expanded number of domestic and
international partners will provide feedback and
promotion for the Portal. The project’s outreach
activities are designed to share information with
populations who are marginalized
either "electronically" or by the sheer lack of
existing research or on-line information. These
are described more fully in sections 2, 5 and 10
of this grant proposal.
By engaging more stakeholders at all levels, but
specifically some important underserved field-
level groups, like organic growers, small
producers, and women in Latin America, the Portal
will evolve as a more dynamic, participatory
endeavor, with content that is guaranteed to be
relevant to its constituents. Interaction with
constituents at the field level will occur
through surveys, meetings at Portal partner-
sponsored workshops and training sessions, during
field visits, and through individual contacts. An
additional soil health learning module will
further facilitate learning for growers and
extension personnel, and the general public.
CONTENT ENHANCEMENT
Evaluation of the Portal’s predecessor, the Soil
Health Gateway, revealed several general issues
related to accessing resources via the Web.
During the past year, growers and NGOs complained
that extension and practical material on the Web
was inadequate for their needs; researchers cited
difficulty locating the most current soil health
research; and students and researchers alike
reported difficulties locating Web sites and or
contacts to answer specific scientific questions.
To respond to these needs, Soil Health Portal
staff will: 1) locate and upload extension
material identified by farmers to fill on-line
information gaps; 2) list new periodical and
other publication titles that relate to soil
health on a monthly basis (and note on-line
locations if they exist); and 3) offer an
expanded portal-based expert advice referral
service that involves direct links to experts as
well as supervised posting of selected expert
referral service questions on existing English,
Spanish and French listservs that are associated
with the Portal. Systematic distribution of the
Portal URL will help potential users find and tap
into its resources.
Interaction between and among stakeholders in the
U.S. and worldwide will continue to be fostered
through the English, Spanish and French listservs
associated with the Soil Health Portal and
translated summaries of traffic cross-posted on
the lists and on the Web site. A Portuguese-
language listserv focusing on rehabilitation of
degraded lands in the Amazon will also be linked
into the Portal during this phase. The expanded
link between the Portal’s expert referral service
and the four language-specific listservs will
encourage interaction between scientists on
priority questions and soil health knowledge gaps.
ADAPTING PORTAL TECHNOLOGIES
Currently, the Soil Health Portal is tied into
the AgNIC distributed information system, which
was developed during the mid-1990s. By
reconfiguring and improving the current technical
foundation to take advantage of the advances in
Web technology, AgNIC partners, like the Soil
Health Portal, will be able to provide greatly
enhanced Web services to all types of users
including linked databases, interactive learning
tools, map server applications, animations, and
individualized home pages.
As a prototype Portal for the AgNIC system, the
Soil Health Portal is well positioned to exploit
several key portal technologies: ontological
support for enhanced, Semantic-Web like
functionality, "channels" (Web services) and the
user-customization they provide, and distributed
databases.
The Soil Health Portal proposes to expand the
thesaurus that was developed as part of the
current Web site into a more robust ontology for
soil health. Whereas a thesaurus is primarily a
listing of all appropriate terms for a given
discipline, an ontology specifies relationships
between terms ("Cruciferae" is "attacked"
by "Heterodera cruciferae"). We will use this
expanded vocabulary to experiment with enhancing
current services such as Search and Browse,
creating new functions such as a Current
Awareness that will be part of (email-based) List
Management.
Channels, or Web services, represent a core
technology of the next generation AgNIC Portal.
We propose to deploy both the Search and Browse
functions and new functions, such as Current
Awareness, as channels. The implication of this
is that groups in the U.S. and developing
countries can take more advantage of the
content in the Soil Health site by customizing
the content for their local community. Web
Services, which is primarily server-to-server
communication, also make it possible to exploit
existing services in new ways. Possibilities
include a "What’s New" service that can easily be
created by querying other, existing services
for "new" information -- a "What's New in
Soil Health" can automatically be assembled by
collecting results returned by Search, Calendar,
and Current Awareness services and filtering
against the ontology service.
Finally, it is proposed that the Soil Health
Portal continue as a prototype AgNIC partner in
the deployment of distributed database
technology. It is already possible to initiate a
search from the main AgNIC site and
automatically "drill down" into Soil Health's
database. The next phase of this development
will enable the reverse: initiating a search at
the Soil Health site and drilling down into the
main AgNIC site as well as other partner sites.
This reverse drilling will effectively exploit
the full breadth of the AgNIC alliance for the
soil health community.
Detailed description of methods to be used in producing and/or
delivering the programming.
Overall coordination will be carried out by a 75%
FTE coordinator, Lucy Fisher. Fisher is currently
outreach coordinator for the CIIFAD Management of
Organic Inputs in Soils of the Tropics (MOIST)
group and was involved in developing the design
and content of the current Worldwide Soil Health
Information Portal.
An advisory committee will continue to determine
the overall content guidelines. This committee
will consist of the project coordinator, both
PIs, the project technical development leader,
the CIIFAD director, the Cooperative Extension
Soil Health Program Work Team leader, and a
farmer and an extension agent. The eight-person
advisory committee will meet quarterly to review
project progress and make recommendations for
changes based on the results of ongoing
evaluations. At the end of the project, the
advisory committee will continue to meet twice a
year for a period of at least one year under the
auspices of CIIFAD.
Laurie Drinkwater, PI, will provide primary
liaison with the Northeast Organic Network. Erick
Fernandes, PI, will have primary responsibility
for liaison with partner organizations in Brazil
and Africa.
The project coordinator will provide project
oversight and liaison with additional project
partners (AgNIC Alliance, TropSCORE Consortium,
CIIFAD and other new partners in Colombia,
Honduras, and the the U.S). Other tasks of the
project coordinator will include maintenance of
reference services, current research titles
updates, Web site design refinement, uploading
extension material, Portal promotion and
dissemination, editing electronic discussion
group summaries (English, French and Spanish,
with assistance from list cosponsors and project
research assistant), posting selected e-list
traffic, and reviewing of search engine database
entries.
The coordinator will further: 1) help design and
link the Portal into the New York State Soil
Health PWT Web site and 2) manage soil health
content for the System of Rice Intensification
Web site and other portal-based learning modules
that are or will be linked through the Portal.
(Laurie Drinkwater, PI, will develop the Soil
Health Demonstration Protocols learning module).
Lastly, with direction from the advisory
committee, the project coordinator will be
responsible for implementing formative and
summative evaluations. Formative evaluation
results will be used by the advisory committee to
suggest fine-tuning of the Portal design during
quarterly meetings and to make recommendations
for its future maintenance and long-term
development. Results of summative evaluation will
be used as necessary to modify content and revise
promotion methods and strategies to ensure better
use of the portal's resources.
A half-time project research assistant will spend
65% of his/her time developing Portal content
(seeking out and tagging 200 new database entries
for the on-line browsing library/search engine as
well as updating existing links); 20% time
working with growers from Soil Health PWT and
NEON (during meetings, trainings and farm visits)
and 15% assisting the coordinator with
project evaluations and other tasks. Development
of the soil biology section of the database will
be done in collaboration with CIIFAD's
International IPM program.
Summary translation of traffic on the Spanish
electronic discussion group (coberagri-L) will be
undertaken quarterly by Dr. Phil Arneson,
visiting professor at Panamerican School of
Agriculture at Zamorano in Honduras. Arneson is
Professor Emeritus and was the principal PI of
last year's ADEC grant. He will also be
responsible for oversight of the Spanish version
of the Portal as well as locating and tagging of
at least 100 Spanish-language Web sites relevant
to Latin American farmers and Spanish-speaking
U.S. growers.
English summaries of the traffic on French-
language list evecs-L may also be provided
quarterly by staff at the International Institute
for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) who have worked
with the Cover Crops Information and Seed
Exchange Center for Africa (CIEPCA), which is
located in Cotonou, Benin. Erick Fernandes,
project PI, will be responsible for posting any
important information from the Portuguese-
language listserv (safs-L). (Summaries will be
available through the listserv link as well as
the news link).
Two target women's horticultural groups near
Medellin, Colombia, will review the Portal's
content and suggest content. Their involvement,
input and feedback will be managed by Diana
Pelaez, the director of Artemisa. She will also
work with women farmers in these groups (who have
recently acquired computers through a separate
project) to help them understand how to use
the Portal's resources, suggest input and to
learn how its use and content can serve the wider
community of resource-limited farmers in Latin
America. Dr. Pelaez and her colleagues will
also forward Spanish language URLs of value to be
added to the Portal database and introduce the
Portal to colleagues of the Ecofondo umbrella
association that unites over 100 environmental
and agricultural NGOs in Colombia.
Grower/extension agent input from NEON and the
Soil Health PWT will be gained through
interactive presentations by Portal staff during
workshops and trainings that are carried out
regularly by these groups. Additional input will
be gathered from one-on-one field visits taken
together with extension agents, and from
reviewing the results of 1000 surveys on farmer
soil quality needs sent out by the PWT.
Technical assistance for developing soil
health "ontologies" for the XML-based search
engine, distributed database development and
other advanced user-customization Internet
functions will be provided by the Information
Technology Section (ITS) at Mann Library. ITS is
a core participant in the AgNIC Technical
Development Team, which will develop the Soil
Health Portal as a next-generation prototype for
AgNIC members. Supervision of technical aspects
of the Portal will be provided by Tim Lynch.
Lynch, who is head of ITS at Mann Library and
chair of the AgNIC Technical Development Team,
will be the project's technical development
leader. He will be assisted by a part-time
graduate student programmer.
- Population to be Served and Target Audience(s):
Populations served by the Worldwide Soil Health
Information Portal include researchers,
extension workers, farmers and the general public
around the world who have access to the Internet.
As research related to soil quality involves
farmers and experts from the fields of
entomology, microbiology, nematology, plant
pathology, soil science and agricultural
extension, these groups, both in the U.S. and
abroad, are important audiences. New Portal
features that locate and tag the most current
scientific information on a monthly basis will
largely target soil health researchers. The
Portal, however, also links to related non-
scientific information, including training
materials, event listings, services and
products, and it provides a forum for
interaction among researchers, users, and those
involved in adapting research results. These
features serve a larger population of
agricultural extension personnel, educators,
students, environmental groups, international
development organizations, grower organizations
and even individual farmers.
As our quest to reach farmers, extension workers
and researchers has evolved, growers in the
northeastern U.S., particularly organic growers
in the Northeast Organic Network (NEON) and
farmers in the NY State Soil Health Program Work
Team (PWT), have become a focused target
audience. The PWT is made up of New York growers,
extension agents and faculty in Cornell's College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The Soil Health
PWT and NEON are of particular interest to the
project, as they includes a large number of
organic farmers, who are generally underserved in
terms of scientific research and information
access.
Resource-limited farmers in the tropics are an
important target audience since practices that
promote soil health can sustainably increase
agricultural production without the use of
expensive inputs. Web-based information targeting
small farmers is especially critical as
virtually all government agricultural extension
services in Latin America (and throughout much of
the developing world) have been eliminated over
the past several decades. This vacuum is being
filled by NGOs, most of which do have access to
the Web but do not have access to adequate
information. It is important to note that while
resource-limited farmers in the tropics may not
have direct computer access, the NGOs that serve
them rely on the type of low-cost interactive
soil health information that the Portal can
provide.
Within the general population of small farmers,
resource-limited women farmers (especially in
Latin America) will be specifically targeted
through direct links to two women's cooperatives
near Medellin, Colombia. These women, who have
recently gained access to computers for their
horticultural projects, are working with our
partner NGO, Artemisa. Artemisa staff will review
the Portal's information base and functionality
with these women and encourage them to suggest
material they would like to access. Lessons
learned from working with this group can
hopefully be scaled up to apply to both women's
organizations and individual women users in other
areas.
Hispanic farmers in the U.S. comprise a
significant underserved population that can
benefit from the Portal's resources, particularly
when soil information in Spanish language is
added. Spanish-language farming information
relevant to U.S. conditions, while limited on the
Web, will be mapped out and included. However,
determining how this population uses the Portal
is beyond the scope of the project during this
fiscal year. Trends suggest that by 2040 close
to 30 percent of family farms in the U.S. will be
owned or operated by Latina/os and Asians. This
will constitute a major demographic shift in
American agriculture.
Our institutional partners will continue to be
major users of and contributors to the Soil
Health Portal. These include: partners in the
TropSCORE Consortium in Africa and Latin America;
the largely U.S.-based AgNIC Alliance members;
and newer collaborators in Honduras (Zamorano),
Colombia (Artemisa) and Brazil (Agroforestry
Systems and Land Rehabilitation in the Amazon
Project). The affiliates, partners and
constituencies of each of these groups, as well
as the networks that they link into, constitute a
wider population served. Cornell graduate
students who use the site through courses and
subscribers to the three electronic discussion
lists (mulch-L, coberagri-L and evecs-L) linked
to the Portal will also be an important segment
of the initial target audience. A wider group of
users who are interested in soil management and
related environmental issues will emerge as they
find the site through general search engines,
links to related sites, or their colleagues.
The wider population of Internet users expected
to access the Soil Health Portal Web site
includes temperate-zone farmers (in Europe and
elsewhere), NGOs in both tropical and
temperate regions, scientists in related fields,
students, educators and those interested in
obtaining or providing services or products that
are related to soil management.
- Collaborating Institutions and Other Partners:
The Worldwide Soil Health Information Portal is
sponsored by the TropSCORE Consortium. The
Consortium consists of: 1) Management of Organic
Inputs in Soils of the Tropics (MOIST) Group of
the Cornell International Institute for Food,
Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD); 2)
International Cover Crops Clearinghouse
(CIDICCO); 3)Cover Crops Information and Seed
Exchange Center for Africa (CIEPCA); and 4)
ECHO.
MOIST/CIIFAD is the lead agency building
the Portal with content input and language-
specific listserv management provided by CIEPCA
(French), CIDICCO (Spanish) and MOIST (English).
The Soil Health Portal is a member of the AgNIC
Alliance, which provides technical support for
the Portal through Mann Library. Through the
AgNIC Alliance, the Soil Health Portal links
into Land-Grant universities, the National
Agricultural Library and other organizations.
Partners providing feedback from field-based
users include the Soil Health Program Work Team
(PWT) and the Northeast Organic Network
(NEON) in the U.S. and Artemisa in Colombia.
Additional partners providing feedback, Portal
content, and site dissemination include
staff of the Agroforestry and Land Rehabilitation
in the Amazon Project, the Soil Fertility
Taskforce for Africa, and CIIFAD's Cornell
Agroforestry Working Group (CAWG). Content
development for the soil biology section of the
Portal database is provided by CIIFAD's
International Integrated Pest Management (IIPM)
Group. Oversight of the Spanish-language portion
and tagging of Spanish database entires of the
Portal will be undertaken by Dr. Phil Arneson at
the Panamerican School of Agriculture at
Zamorano. The NGO Artemisa will also provide
Spanish-language sites to add to the database and
link the Portal into the wider Colombian
enivironmenal umbrella association, Ecofondo,
which works with over 100 local environmental and
agricultural organizations.
Information and contacts of the above
organizations and groups are provided below:
Management of Organic Inputs of Soils in the
Tropics Group (MOIST)
Cornell International Institute for Food,
Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD)
Cornell University
Lucy Fisher, Outreach Coordinator,
lhf2@cornell.edu
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/
home2.html
Mann Library, Cornell University
Timothy Lynch, Head, Information Technology,
tim.lynch@cornell.edu
http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/
Agricultural Network Information Center (AgNIC):
National alliance of U.S. land-grant university
libraries.
Liaison: Timothy Lynch, Director, Technical
Development Team
www.agnic.org/
International Cover Crops Clearinghouse
(CIDICCO):
NGO located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, concerned
with information exchange on green manure
and cover crops in the tropics. Operates in
Spanish and English.
Director: Milton Flores, milton.flores@cidicco.hn
http://rds.org.hn/miembros/cidicco/
Cover Crops Information and Seed Exchange Center
for Africa (CIEPCA):
A group hosted by the International Institute for
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Cotonou, Benin;
contributes to the sustainable management of
tropical soils by assisting researchers and
development specialists develop, target, and test
appropriate cover cropping systems in Africa.
Currently maintains information programming only.
Operates in French and English.
Coordinator: Robert Carsky
r.carsky@cgiar.org
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/CIEPCA
/home.html
Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization
(ECHO):
A non-profit organization actively involved in
networking global hunger solutions.
Director: Dr. Martin Price, Executive Director
Fort Meyers, Florida
echo@echonet.org
http://www.echonet.org/
Northeast Organic Network (NEON):
A consortium of farmers, researchers, extension
educators and grassroots nonprofits in
northeastern U.S. working to improve organic
farmers' access to research and technical
support
Project director: Anusuya Rangarajan,
ar47@cornell.edu
http://www.neon.cornell.edu/
Soil Health Program Work Team (PWT)
The Core of the PWT includes 14 NY vegetable
growers, 9 extension staff and 11 Cornell
faculty. 200 farmers are expected to be trained
in soil quality assessment and management by
the team this year.
Contact: George Abawi, gsa1@cornell.edu or David
Wolfe dww5@cornell.edu
Ithaca, New York
Panamerican School of Agriculture at Zamorano
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Contact: Dr. Phil Arneson - visiting professor,
paa3@cornell.edu
Artemisa
A rural development NGO focused on food security,
soil management and conservation of
genetic resources in NW Colombia
Diana Pelaez, Director, dmp46@cornell.edu
Medellin, Colombia
Agroforestry and Land Rehabilitation in the
Amazon Project
Manaus, Brazil
This research project in the Brazilian Amazon
operates in conjunction with the Large Scale
Biosphere Atmosphere research program with NASA
support
Erick Fernandes, Project Director,
ecf3@cornell.edu
Soil Fertility Taskforce for Africa
Erick Fernandes, Chair
Additional groups at Cornell University:
Cornell Agroforestry Working Group (CAWG),
Louise Buck, Program Leader
CIIFAD's International Integrated Pest Management
Program; Peter Trutmann, Director
- Rationale for Project:
The project will use new information technologies
and perspectives to enable new forms of
collaboration to solve basic agricultural
problems. While new telecommunications
technologies allow persons on different
continents to trade ideas and information in
seconds, finding specific information in
cyberspace, crossing the language barrier and
reaching resource-limited groups are major
challenges. While globalization has brought cost
and ease of use of communications technology
almost within the grasp of all, those who do not
actually make use of the technology are left
further behind then ever before.
First, it is useful to explain why U.S.-based
scientists, practitioners and farmers should want
to exchange information with their counterparts
in the subtropics and tropics. While large-scale
farming in the U.S. often has little in common
with farming in the tropics, there is tremendous
crossover of relevant research regarding small-
scale farming. This is especially true for
organic agriculture and soil management
strategies based on the use of organic inputs,
cover crops, mulches and other practices that
encourage soil health. While organic agriculture
has traditionally been used practiced throughout
the developing world due to lack of capital for
inputs, an increasing market for organic products
as well as environmental concerns have increased
the demand in the U.S. for information on organic
agriculture and related soil health strategies by
growers, extension personnel and researchers.
Stakeholders in temperate and tropical
agriculture in fact have much to learn from each
other, and, as the global population grows and
environmental degradation increases, soil health
is a topic of increasing concern for all.
While the original project was intended to build
links between farmers, extension staff and
researchers, we found that field-level users of
the Portal (especially of groups underserved by
information and research) were somewhat more
difficult to bring into the process because
practical information was scarce, their needs are
diverse or because they do not regularly look
for information on the Internet. Hence, part of
the rationale of the new project is to link
directly with these groups, to understand and
respond to their needs, and to encourage them to
use the Internet as a source of information.
Within the general field level groups, we have
chosen to focus on those for which the potential
impact is very great but are traditionally
neglected in terms of research and information
programming: 1) organic farmers, as they are
traditionally underserved; 2) Latin American
women farmers, especially those who have computer
access through newly forming cooperatives; and 3)
Spanish-speaking U.S. farmers, who are a rapidly
increasing but neglected demographic group.
A final rationale for the project concerns the
disorganized state of Internet access to
agricultural information, which the project will
attempt to address. Several notable problems
continue to prevent users from putting more trust
and time into Internet-based communication: 1)
the amount of information is overwhelming and
current general search engines have not been able
to retrieve quality Web sites efficiently; 2)
information gaps still exist in cyberspace; and
3) technological advances reflected on individual
sites generally do not have content to match,
which further frustrates users.
- Describe the potential for significant impact on the Agricultural
Communication Network development and/or integration:
As world population increases, the availability
of suitable agricultural land decreases and
environmental degradation accelerates worldwide,
the challenges and urgency of maintaining
healthy soils that can sustain human and animal
life increases daily. Thus, the potential impact
of promoting greater use of the Portal's
information is enormous. The significant
impacts of the project will come from introducing
next-generation communications technologies
to foster collaboration among diverse users of
the Worldwide Soil Health Portal help them
access information that will improve agricultural
sustainability and environmental quality, and
promote awareness of soil health issues to those
who could most benefit from it. During the
past year of providing Web-based soil health
information, we learned that impact on target
audiences' use of the Portal information can be
improved by: 1) filling major gaps in on-line
information; 2) establishing more direct links
with and between end-users (with more aggressive
outreach to underserved populations); and 3)
taking advantage of advances in Internet
technology to improve information delivery.
AgNIC's use of the Soil Health Portal as a
protoype for developing customized Web services,
linking distributed databases and exploring
semantic Web ontologies that can be extended to
all AgNIC land-grant partners could have a
tremendous impact on all partners of the AgNIC
Alliance.
Through listservs in English, Spanish and French
and through information provided by the Soil
Health Portal search engines, field practitioners
and researchers have been exchanging
information globally on various aspects of soil
fertility related to cover crops, soil
communities and related topics. The electronic
discussion groups have been an especially
important link between scientists in different
countries and language groups. Greater impact
will be generated by expanding our partners
beyond the current members of the TropSCORE
Consortium and the AgNIC Alliance to include new
partners in: Brazil (Agroforestry and Land
Rehabilitation in the Amazon Project); Colombia
(Artemisa, a local NGO with links to Ecofondo, an
umbrella group for over 100 Colombian
environmental and rural development NGOs);
Honduras (Panamerican School of Agriculture in
Zamorano); and southern/eastern Africa
(Rockefeller Foundation-funded Soil Fertility
Taskforce, which has links to wider regional and
national soil fertility networks). These new
groups will have a direct impact not only through
providing feedback, adding content and expanding
the user base through their own networks, but by
increasing the pool of expertise providing
responses to e-mail from the Portal's "on-line
soil health reference service." The new
Brazilian partner makes it possible for the
Portal to cross into an additional language group
through its bilingual staff and Portuguese
listserv on land rehabilitation, which will carry
summaries of relevant English listserv traffic.
As those with the most direct link to the soil,
however, a greater percentage of farmers must be
brought into the network. Building links to over
200 NY State farmers in the Soil Health PWT
and more than 20 organic farmers in the Northeast
Organic Network (NEON) will allow us to
identify the kinds of information they desire,
incorporate the information into the Portal, and
show them how to use the resources to their
advantage. Staff who are building the Soil Health
Portal will also assist the PWT design their own
Web site that will link into the Portal. This
will increase local impact by addressing specific
local knowledge. Organic farmers, a traditionally
underserved population, will continue to be an
important target (though not all farmers in the
Soil Health PWT are organic growers). As soil
health is especially important to this group, the
impact could occur in a shorter timeframe than
with the wider audience of larger conventional
farmers who are linked to the Web in higher
numbers.
Targeting minorities and women at the field level
can have significant impact. These groups
have proven to be hard to reach but have much to
gain from low-cost soil fertility practices. In
collaboration with two women's horticultural
cooperatives that recently acquired computers
through a separate project, partners from the
Artemisa NGO in Colombia will work with 145
resource-limited women farmers to determine their
perceived needs, get their input on the
existing Portal information and teach them how to
use the Portal. As a major purveyor of
information to a large number of local farmers'
organizations, Artemisa itself will be a major
user of both Spanish and English Portal
information as well. While much Spanish-language
material added to the Portal will affect resource-
limited Latin American farmers, project staff
will also add soil health-related information to
the searchable databases that targets Spanish-
speaking U.S. farmers. Both domestic and foreign
growers will benefit from the cross-fertilization
of ideas in both languages.
- Describe the plans for research, assessment, evaluation and dissemination
as applicable to the project:
One month after launching the new interactive
site features (May 30, 2003) formative evaluation
of the Portal will be undertaken. The evaluation
will statistics on the number of hits per
geographical region and the number of subscribers
to the electronic discussion groups who use the
Portal will be monitored on a monthly basis.
Beginning June 2003, a survey will be conducted
to assess the Portal functionality
(www.albany.edu/library/internet/evaluate.html)
and other attributes (accuracy, authority,
objectivity, currency and coverage) outlined at
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-
Library/webeval.htm.
Those surveyed will include representatives of
four TropSCORE members, students in graduate
classes enrolled in two tropical and sustainable
agriculture courses at Cornell, selected
scientists at several universities (Cornell
University, Panamerican School of Agriculture at
Zamorano in Honduras, Wageningen University in
the Netherlands) and research institutes
(International Institute of Tropical Agriculture)
and extension workers from Cornell Cooperative
Extension and CIDICCO.
Input from other users will be solicited through
three electronic discussion groups associated
with the Gateway. With the help of the advisory
group, the Portal will be fine-tuned according to
the survey results.
Summative evaluation of the Portal content and
what users are actually doing with the
information and resources will be undertaken
three months after the updated Portal is
launched. This will include contacting at least
20 individuals who solicited advice through the
electronic discussion groups in order to evaluate
the impact of the information they received.
Users of the Portal reference service will be
sent followup e-mails to determine the value of
the information and how it was used. In addition,
targeted scientists, listserv subscribers,
TropSCORE members and graduate students will also
be solicited for comments and feedback.
Finally, discussion list subscribers, TropSCORE
Consortium and AgNIC Alliance members and
reference service users will be contacted to
determine the level of collaboration initiated or
strengthened as a result of using the Portal or
the electronic mailing lists associated with it.
Dissemination of the Portal URL will occur as
follows: 1) request links to and from AgNIC
alliance and TropSCORE members in the U.S. not
already linked into the Portal; 2) request for
links to the Portal sent to 50 selected home
pages of organizations or groups not already
contacted for this purpose; 4) promotion on the
four electronic discussion groups and other lists
that relate to soil health or related sustainable
agriculture topics; and 5) promotion of the site
in print and on-line agricultural newsletters:
Additional U.S.-based newsletters will be
selected for advertising by March 2003.
Farmer Feedback:
During NEON and Soil Health PWT workshops in mid-
January 2003, farmers and extension agents
in attendance will be surveyed to get input on
the Portal's functionality and content as well as
suggestions for improvement. On June 1, 2003,
farmers who provided feedback during the workshop
will be contacted again to see if and how they
are continuing to use the Portal.
A similar evaluation of the Portal's
functionality and content by farmers of the
women's cooperatives will occur during three
visits by Artemisa staff to the cooperatives.
Feedback (indluding sites to add selected by the
Artemisa staff) will be sent for evaluation by
the Portal staff within two weeks of each visit.
A fourth scheduled visit by Artemisa staff to the
two women's cooperatives in June will assess if
and how the women farmers have been using the
Portal since the initial visits. A final
evaluation of the relevance of the Portal to the
Colombian women's cooperatives will be undertaken
during July (month 11 of the project).
A final evaluation report will be written at the
end of the project. Future evaluation, assessment
and promotion of the Portal after completion of
the ADEC-funded project will be undertaken by
CIIFAD, which will maintain the site content. The
AgNIC technical development team leader will
also continue to monitor the Portal as long as
the site is supported by an AgNIC Alliance
member.
- Broader Impacts:
As required by the Agricultural
Telecommunications Program, the Worldwide Soil
Health Information Portal project is intended to
develop agricultural programming utilizing
advanced technology to facilitate and to
strengthen research-based agricultural extension,
education and discovery. This programming will
use advanced Internet technology to disseminate
and to share agricultural research-based
instruction, and extension programming,
agricultural results, and other relevant
information by creating an Internet Portal, a
network through which users can connect and work
directly with user groups, including women and
minorities, to ensure they are connected to
information that addresses their felt needs.
"Soil health" is the capacity of soil to function
as a vital living system, with ecosystem and land
use boundaries, to sustain plant and animal
productivity, maintain or enhance water and air
quality, and promote plant and animal health
(Duran and Zeiss, 2000, Applied Soil Ecology 15:3-
11). It is an evolving, though certainly not new,
concept that has steadily been gaining acceptance
among farmers, practitioners and over the past
few years. In practical terms it is the
integration of biological with chemical and
physical approaches to soil management for long
term sustainability of crop productivity with
minimal impact on the environment. Promoting the
addition of the biological component to the
conventional methods of soil management can have
a favorable impact not only by providing
alternatives to environmentally destructive
farming methods, but by encouraging the
production of healthier produce through the
reduction of chemical use.
By expanding and interlinking its user base
across geographical and language boundaries, the
Portal can play a vital role in providing useful
information and contacts not only to farmers and
extension staff and to researchers who can prove
and improve the effectiveness of soil health
strategies, but also to donors who choose which
research topics to fund, and policymakers who
choose what issues to support. Important impacts
in terms of soil health research will result from
facilitating information exchange among
scientists from different areas of the world that
will allow synergistic research efforts rather
than reinventing the wheel on different
continents. Finally, the acceptance and use of
soil health measures by agricultural stakeholders
in general can influence the environment by
reducing further land degradation and
rehabilitating lands that declined in
productivity through poor soil management
strategies.
Reaching Target Groups
Research and reliable information on organic
agriculture, to which soil health is integral,
has been paltry at best. Only now with organic
markets showing excellent profit potential, are
the tides beginning to shift, and organic farming
as a possible alternative strategy for small
farms is being addressed at all. Organic food
grown in the United States is fast becoming a
major export. According to the Organic Trade
Association, the United States exports more than
$40 million in organic goods to the United
Kingdom and an estimated $40 to $60 million to
Japan each year. U.S. organic exports to Europe
are growing by as much as 15 percent per year,
and by 30 to 50 percent per year to Japan.
Organic, which grew 20% every year for the past
decade, is the fastest expanding sector of the
domestic food business. Organic sales, according
to Datamonitor, was expected to increase from an
estimated $5.4 billion in 1998 to more than $9
billion in 2001, which attests to the potential
of the project to have broad impact on the
traditionally underserved organic agriculture
population. Our direct field links to the
Northeast Organic Network and NY State Soil
Health PWT farmers during field visit and
workshops and through surveys will be especially
helpful in understanding and responding to the
needs of this group.
While we are trying to link directly into farmer
groups at the field level, it is noteworthy that
broader impacts of the Portal's information
programming in the developing world are likely to
come from NGOs directly accessing the information
on behalf of the farmers for whom they serve a
vital agriculture extension role. Although
resource-limited farmers in general are an
important group for the Portal, our target group
in the developing world during this phase of the
project will be women. Women produce 60 to 80
percent of the food in most developing countries
and perform close to half of agricultural work
globally. The importance of women farmers is
increasing as the percentage of men farmers
declines due to their migration to cities in
search of higher incomes as well as the effects
of disease and war. Women farmers, however,
remain among the poorest farmers. Despite the
significance of women in agriculture, their
contributions are often limited by lack of access
to resources, and, it is estimated that women
farmers still receive only five percent of all
agricultural extension services worldwide. While
these statistics point to the great potential
impact the project has, reaching resource-poor
women farmers has been difficult. However, by
working with several women's cooperatives in
Colombia that recently acquired computers and
training from a development organization, we
should begin to understand better what their
needs are and how we can best interact with them
to maximize their opportunities to use the
Portal's information.
The broader impacts of providing soil health
information to the Spanish-speaking population
could be substantial considering the dearth of
material targeted at this group in the U.S. and
the statistics on their actual numbers. USDA data
show an increase of 40 percent between 1987 and
1997 in the number of Latina/o owned and operated
farms; these farmers will number 50,000 in 20
years if current trends continue. Meanwhile, the
number of family farmers among Euro-Americans and
other groups owning farms continues to steadily
decline. Current trends point to a major
demographic shift in American agriculture with up
to a third of family farms being owned or
operated by Latina/os and Asians by 2040; by this
date, Latinos (of Mexican origin as well as other
recent immigrants from other areas of Latin
America) will own up to 20 million acres of land.
While this current phase of the project will only
seek out and make available Spanish-language
material for this population, the next phase of
the Portal will attempt to link into this group
to understand their specific needs for
informational material more clearly. The
potential to serve this community is substantial
and should not be overlooked if U.S. agriculture
is to thrive in the future.
- Proposed Timetable:
Every month:
Locate, tag and enter English and Spanish Web
URLs into database; respond to on-line
Reference Service requests; screen and put up
current month's journal article titles related to
soil health; request selected homepages to link
to Portal URL; define thesaurus terms and
relationships for Web ontology development; check
database for deadlinks; liaise with
international project partners; locate, acquire
permission and upload relevant or requested
extension material not already on Web; attend PWT
farmer soil quality trainings in local NY
regions as they are scheduled (estimated 3-4 per
year); accompany NEON extension staff to
field to interview individual farmers when
oppotrunities arise.
Month 1: (September 2002)
First advisory committee meeting; check overall
design specifications of Portal; make detailed
plan for new user interface functionality (Web
services) with programmer and technical
development leader; attend regional organic
agriculture workshop in Hudson Valley. Meet with
NEON staff (faculty, extension staff and farmers)
to define details of interactions with Portal
staff.
Month 2: (October 2002)
Screen and tag URL submissions from international
Portal partners; meet with PWT faculty and
Cornell-based extension staff to plan
dates/details of specific activities; Artemisa
staff (in Colombia) meeting with women's
cooperative #1 to survey soil health
informational needs of women producers, introduce
current Portal and define participatory
evaluation criteria.
Month 3: (November 2002)
Translate and post summaries of recent listserv
traffic (quarterly); test-run new technology
features; present Portal and get input from
agents at annual statewide cooperative extension
in-service training; acquire and analyze soil
quality information need responses on
questionnaires sent to 1000 farmers by PWT staff
during April, 2002.
Month 4: (December 2002)
Second advisory committee meeting; Artemisa staff
meeting with women's cooperative #2 to
survey soil health informational needs of women
producers, introduce current Portal and define
participatory evaluation criteria; complete and
upload soil health educational module.
Month 5: (January 2003)
Attend NEON farmers regional meeting and get
input on current Portal and felt soil health
informational needs; screen and tag URL
submissions from Portal's institutional partners;
work with PWT to define and design specific PWT
homepage (for their own Web site); analyze
information from women's cooperatives working
with Artemisa.
Month 6: (February 2003)
Translate and post quarterly summaries of recent
listserv traffic; test-run new technology
features; search (on- and off-line) for (and
enter if on the Web or upload if not on-line)
specific information requested by farmers
(Artemisa, NEON and PWT surveys).
Month 7: (March 2003)
Third advisory committee meeting; implement
formative evaluation survey; launch updated
version of Portal; search (on- and off-line) for
specific information requested by farmers
(Artemisa, NEON and PWT surveys)
Month 8: (April 2003)
Screen and tag URL submissions from institutional
Portal partners; search (on- and off-line) for
specific information requested by farmers
(Artemisa, NEON and PWT surveys); refine Portal
as per evaluation results.
Month 9: (May 2003)
Translate and post quarterly summaries of recent
listserv traffic; test-run new technology
features; search (on- and off-line) for specific
information requested by farmers (Artemisa,
NEON and PWT surveys).
Month 10: (June 2003)
Fourth advisory committee meeting;. Analyze
Portal "advertising" campaign and plan final URL
dissemination campaign together with
institutional partners; survey farmers (Artemisa,
NEON and PWT) as to relevance of materials added
to the Portal as per farmer feedback and requests.
Month 11: (July 2003)
Finish analyzing final farmer response surveys;
screen and tag URL submissions from Portal
partners; test-run new technology features;
implement summative evaluation and second
formative evaluation.
Month 12: (August 2003)
Advisory committee wrap up; translate and post
quarterly summaries of recent listserv traffic;
refine Portal as per evaluation and survey
results; finish final reports and evaluation;
make sure continuing maintenance and development
plans are in place.
- Project Personnel and Time Commitment:
Lucy Hill Fisher, project coordinator, 75%
Timothy Lynch, (Head of Information Technology,
Mann Library), project technology development
leader, advisory group member, 6%
Norman Uphoff (Professor, CIIFAD director),
advisory group member 3%
research assistant, 25%
software programmer (graduate student), 20%
Spanish translator/research assistant (graduate
student), 16%
Three additional faculty working with the project
in conjunction with their regular duties are not
listed by direct percentages.