Business Model: IRRI Training Centre

Business model: Combining“training, train–the–trainer, devolution of information and technicalknowledge” in developing national systems (IRRI, 2001).

Competitive advantage: The capacity–buildingfunction, led by the IRRI Training Centre (TC), develops strong collaborativerelationships with NARES partners and makes it an indispensableresearch–to–delivery component within IRRI.

Activities undertaken: Since 2002, TC began tooffer computer–aided distance education to increase impact and reach, by way ofthe Rice Knowledge Bank (for RKB clickhere). Envisioned as a “virtual university,” the RKB is an open access (OA)facility that offers web–based decision support tools, data sheets, e–learningmodules, and other products.

Benefits:

• Promotion of partnerships between IRRI and its NARES collaborators.
• Promotion of partnerships between national systems.
• Assistancefrom country sites (for example Bangladesh)through devolution. These sites shift the more complex and resource intensive tasks tothe ultimate beneficiary - the NARES collaborators and their stakeholders(Tasks such as creating capacity, developing new content, testingtechnologies, transferring knowledge to rice farmers, and maintaining the localsite).
• Spreading of impacts across organization and countryborders through the main RKB site which serves as a portal showcasingtechniques and tools of different groups and localities. 
• Higher yields by farmer cooperators,acquiring knowledge and techniques from researchers and extension workers, ascompared to non–cooperators (Balasubramanian, et al., n.d.)

Successes: Based on site hits, RKB is a resounding success. In June 2007, it surpassed the 3.2million mark and has been viewed by almost 250,000 unique visitors. The RKBsupplements classroom–based group training with more than 13,000 learningsessions happening till date.

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An example:

Need felt
C.R. Rajendran, Directorof the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Agriculture, Environment, and NaturalResources Division for the Mekong region, admits there are advantages anddisadvantages to the use of ICT in bridging the knowledge gap in agriculture.

“ICT offers powerful new ways to capture, present, anddisseminate the wealth of knowledge available ... . However, most poor andsmall–scale farmers are unable to access such information available through ICTdue to language barriers, lack of tools, and lack of knowledge about existing information.Also, they may be overwhelmed and intimidated by ICT.” (ADB, 2004)

How was it addressed:

• Funds: In 2004, ADB approved aUSD $1 million grant from the Japan Fund for Information and Communications Technology(JFICT; clickhere) to support an ICT project targeting poor rice farmers in the Mekongregion. 
• Actions: Adoptionof materials from IRRI’s RKB site and localize them to suit local conditions andthe needs of extension workers and collaborators in Cambodia, Thailand, andVietnam. 

Potential benefits gained:

• Using country–specific, relevant, and targetedcontent, transfer of appropriate technology can be faster and wider, creatingimpact at the grassroots level.
• Localization could create “ownership” that helpsfoster sustainability.
• Wider availability of technology–based services willhelp demystify ICT, encourage farmers to use its tools,
• Perhaps even compel government to fund developmentof infrastructure in the countryside.
• It can help validate both the “virtual university”and the soundness of the proffered methods and practices.

Source: Excerpts from article on http://firstmonday.org (for url please click here)