Rice Knowledge Bank - Global

The Rice Knowledge Bank (RKB) website contains six types of materials:

1. e-learning courses
2. KnowledgeBytes (e.g., fact sheets)
3. Decision support tools for field practices and diagnosis
4. Reference materials
5. Rice biological databases and geographic information systems (GIS) maps
6. Training materials

The objects within each category are structured as reusable learning and information "objects", meaning that they can be cross-referenced with items from other categories. For example, while the rice grain-quality course is located within the e-learning category, it may be accessed through the decision-support tool TropRice and various other reference materials.

A digital rice-production library contains information on training and rice production. Drawing on ideas from private sector work in this area, the service also offers information about rice research, impact data, and training information. Data may be shared, searched and used in any part of the world that has basic Internet connectivity. For remote areas -- such as rice villages in developing countries -- where the Internet is not easily accessible, the Knowledge Bank is built to run from CD-ROMs and can be printed using single-source publishing.

The site is meant to facilitate local training courses through the search mode, which helps to define topics and provides information about what has already been written on a particular topic. When a course is finished, materials may then be uploaded to the Knowledge Bank's training course materials area for use again at any time in the future. In this way, the site is designed to collect and transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

Digital extension workshops are offered for NGOs, national agricultural research and extensions systems, farmers, and other partners and rice industry stakeholders. The workshops focus on how to use the Rice Knowledge Bank to build rice knowledge capacity. In addition, an e-learning course took place in July, 2002 through a collaboration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. A second e-learning course, which drew 26 participants from around the world, was held in September, 2002.

Agriculture, Technology.

IRRI opted not to attempt through this service to provide direct assistance to poor rice farmers, who often have no access to even the most basic infrastructure, but, rather, to try to reach those who could help them.

The site was officially launched at the International Rice Congress in Beijing, China in September, 2002. The Knowledge Bank attracted over 2.5 million hits in 2004, and use continues to grow. Through its national sites, the RKB is increasingly providing locally adapted materials in local language.