Knowledge Management in Horticulture

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Knowledge Management in Horticulture

• Exploration of Ideas for building a Knowledge
  Network in National Horticulture Mission

Gopi N Ghosh Assistant FAO Representative
Resource Person Food and Nutrition Security
Community
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Knowledge

• The world is run by those who know
• Knowledge is power
• Swadeshe pujyata raja vidwan sarvatra pujyate

• Knowledge society
• Knowledge economy
• Knowledge worker
• Knowledge century

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What is knowledge

• Knowledge is what people learn, acquire, know.
• awareness and understanding of facts, truths or
  info gained as experience or learning or
  introspection.
• distillation of information that has been
  collected, classified, organized, integrated,
  abstracted and value added.
• data information knowledge wisdom

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Knowledge

• Explicit or established Traditional knowledge
  and wisdomTacit or experiential
• Challenge is to capture traditional or tacit
  knowledge
• Difficult to identify and lost if not captured
• Knowledge is complex and contextual,
• An interactive process, essentially a human
  attribute, value laden, and connected to action.
• Knowledge is sticky.
• Rests with experts/practitioners, even with lay
  persons
• Associated with success, also in failures and
  mistakes

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Knowledge Management

• Any intentional and systematic process or
  practice of acquiring, capturing, sharing and
  using knowledge
• To enhance learning and improved performance
• To create individual capabilities org.
  effectiveness
• About people trust behaviour, culture,
  attitudes
• Process to identify, capture, document, store,
  share, disseminate, validate, distill utilize
  Knowledge
• By using various tools and methods
• Not a goal in itself, NOT only databases and IT

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Why do we need knowledge or KM

• Have enough poverty, disease, malnutrition,
  destitution, illiteracy, underdevelopment.
• We have sufferings, oppression, exploitation .
• Our natural resources are in grave danger
• We often talk about resource use efficiency
• We have to remove poverty
• We spent crores on development still ..

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why..

• A quarter of worlds hungry, apprx 250 million
  poor
• Some 74 of children under-3, 52 of adult women
  ,70-80 adolescent girls are anaemic. Up to 25
  of all babies are born with a low birth weight .
• 130th rank amongst 175 nations in UNDP HDR
• Despite an enviable rate of economic growth
• Despite enough progress in food production
• Despite plethora of social sector schemes.
• Despite largest manpower/expertise.
• Despite .

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And then look around.

• Rapid changes all around - WTO/ globalization -
  urbanization - Consumer trends/ taste/
  preferences
• Severe farm /rural crisis- Small farmers
  water, sanitation, health, depleting Resources
• Climate change global warming
• Gender imbalance regional disparities
  divides
• Yawning Gaps in productivity, efficiency
  knowledge
• Emerging needs and aspiration
• Perhaps time to think - seriously - differently
  - collectively - to find sustainable Solutions to
  our immensely complex development challenges

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So we need knowledge a new kind of knowledge -
that gives us

• Ability to identify and address common issues
• Varied dimensions to the problems and their
  solutions
• efficiency confidence - comparative advantage
• shared wisdom and responsibility
• strength through collective intelligence
• A window of successful practices / lessons
  learntelsewhere

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An effective Knowledge sharing mechanism

• Allows us to know the experienced and engage
  them collectively to work on critical issues in
  a 2-way process
• Helps us develop new knowledge base /ideas which
  have cross-disciplinary perspectives
• Ensures independence from social, cultural and
  geographic or organizational boundaries
• Provides Recognition opportunities to utilize
  ones ideas or experience otherwise remaining
  idle/getting lost
• Tapping available experience and Not to reinvent
  the wheel

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http//www.solutionexchange-un.net.in
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SOLUTIONEXCHANGE

• A new initiative of UN ( a catalytic role)
• Connecting people with common interests
• Creating communities of practices (CoPs) that
  explore or synergize various development
  experiences
• Impartial forum to bring practitioners together
  to share knowledge
• Support India's developmental goals ( thus
  fulfilling MDG Goals)
• Knowledge on demand

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SOLUTIONEXCHANGE

• A moderated mailgroup but NOT a database, NOT
  an e-network alone and NOT an advocacy platform.
• Problems and challenges are put as QUERY in an
  e-mail and posted to all community members
• Members offer Advice, Experience, Contact Or
  Suggestions
• A CONSOLIDATED RESPONSE prepared with SYNOPSIS
  of original responses, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES and
  LINKS
• These are available on the website as Knowledge
  Products
• http//www.solutionexchange-un.net.in
• Other outcome e-discussion papers, newsletters,
  updates etc

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Generating knowledge
Networking
Free impartial
National global reach
voluntary associations
Professional Recognition
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Exploring the Concept of a Horticulture Mission
Network

• benefits from ongoing initiatives in Knowledge
  Management
• essentially a forum of individuals looking for
  sustainable solutions to a variety of problems
  faced in the workplace
• State Coordinators, VCs, and experts - could
  form a community of practice.
• A two-way process of learning from experiences
  of institutions/individuals and disseminating
  good practices, systems, innovative solutions,
  FAQs, etc.
• SAU, ICAR experts can also be inducted.

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Drawing from Solution Exchange model

• a mailgroup with a moderator, all messages flow
  through and are filtered/edited
• Problems and challenges are put as a query in an
  e-mail and posted to all community members.
• Members offer advice, experience, contacts or
  suggestions.
• A consolidated reply is prepared - enriched.
• These are available on a dedicated website
• E-discussion papers, newsletters, updates etc.
• face-to-face meetings to facilitate further
  exchange of ideas

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How the KM network functions
1. Member sends the Community a queryvia the
Moderator

Help!
Help!
Help!
Help!
Help!
Help!
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2. Community offers the Member solutions from
their experience plus desk research on the topic
Desk Research
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3. A Consolidated Reply is prepared, sent
archived
Thank you!
To the Solutions Bank
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What an NHM query might look like

• Query 1 I am Mr. Pannalal, from Chattisgarh.
• Mangoes have been identified as a priority crop
  for the state. We want to promote improved mango
  cultivation in the state.
• We are interested to know what would be the good
  varieties of mangoes suitable for the state,
  and from where can we procure the planting
  material for these varieties?
• We would like suggestions on this from
  Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, UP or others who may
  have good experience in this area.

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Possible responses
State 1 Based on our experience and the
climatic conditions in Chattisgarh, we think that
the Dussseri will be a good variety. The best
planting material for this variety can be
procured from........ State 2 I agree with
state 1. Also another good variety for
Chattisgarh may be ........based on our
experience from .. Further we have found the
planting material from the region ...... to be of
very good quality. SAU 1 The expert on mango
planting is Mr. X at the State Agriculture
University in Maharashtra. He can also suggest on
reliable sources for planting materials as well
as basic precautions to be taken for the orchard.
He be contacted at ..... Further, there is a good
website with a compendium of information at
http//www. The Consolidated Reply would
summarise these responses and add links to
websites from ICAR centres or SAUs and other
material.
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What another NHM query, like

• Query 2 I am Mr Damodaran from Kerala. My query
  is regarding the bottlenecks in the flow of NRM
  funds from the National Level to the implementing
  agency.
• The transfer of money from the National
  Horticulture Mission to the executing agency for
  the project took ...... months to reach creating
  a host of problems such as missing a valuable
  season, de-motivation of staff and frustration of
  the farmers involved in such projects.
• We would like to know from the experiences of
  other states facing similar situations and how
  such problems have been overcome? We also
  solicit innovative suggestions to streamline
  these processes so that such procedural obstacles
  can be remedied once for all.

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Possible responses
State 1 In AP we were able to expedite the
process by adopting ...... This significantly
reduced the time taken to get the funds and
making them available to the farmers on
time State 2 I think given the advances in
internet technology, we should definitely be able
to have an online tracking system, where one can
see where the problem is, and quickly follow up
to overcome the issue at that level. Expert To
me we should pre-set reasonable processing time
for various activities or for each step. Then a
built-in real time MIS may indicate the problem
point for immediate attention of monitoring
authorities. The Consolidated Reply would
summarise the responses and provide additional
information on guidelines, reports, links to
websites, etc.
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Other types of questions that could be taken up
on procedures What is the procedure for
collaborating with international agencies such as
World Bank, FAO etc. relating to policy issues
The APMC act is being replaced by the Model act
in several states. We would like to know about
the difficulties during the transition period and
how the states dealt with these issues around
basic infrastructural support though some
states like Uttaranchal may produce many types
of fruits and vegetables in abundance, the
problem of transport and communication due
peculiar terrain makes their marketing difficult.
What could be the strategy here to boost?
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A web site could then hold the information and
provide other information and links, such as

• The archived consolidated replies
• FAQs on the common questions raised
• Links to Guidelines and other NHM publications
• Links to sites like IIHR, VRC, NRCs, CISH, NRC,
  CIFTRI..
• Links to other global sites like WVC, post
  harvest centre, FAO, CGIAR systems..
• Other news, events, announcements etc. of
  particular interest to NHM coordinators and the
  horticulture industry

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Food and Nutrition Security Community
Welcome to the Solutionexchange for the Food and
Nutrition Security Community in India Resource
Person Research
Associates Gopi Ghosh
Bidisha Pillai Shavika Gupta

• WHO
• FAO
• NFI
• UNICEF
• MINISTRY
• Agri Food
• Rural Dev

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Any doubts?? Further comments ?? Unanswered
questions ?? Unresolved issues Thank you