About Regional Agricultural Information System (RAIS)

AARINENA, in co-operation with the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the countries of the region,  is establishing  and developing  a Regional Agricultural Information System (RAIS) for the WANA Region.  This would aim to increase the effectiveness of the agricultural research in the region and to increase their abilities to reach the end-user.  External financial support is being sought for the programme of work.

The RAIS would serve as an information repository and exchange mechanism at the regional level, aiming to strengthen, co-ordinate, and add value to initiatives by national programmes and those coordinated by regional and international organizations. The ICT steering committee of AARINENA has approved a two phase plan to implement RAIS.

 The first phase includes three main components: the design of a National Agriculture Information System (NAIS), the development  of an Electronic Forum for discussion and the development of a Question-and-Answer service. The second phase will include the design and implementation of Experts Information System (EIS), Institutes Information System(IIS), a Projects Information System(PIS), a Research Outputs Information System (RIS), and a Gateway function that has multi-host database search engine.