Institution of Agricultural Research and Higher Education (IRESA)

Ministry of Agriculture

Agricultural Information Management

Agricultural Biotechnology for Knowledge sharing in NENA Region2-4 July 2012 Cairo-Egypt

Value of agricultural exportations in 2009 : 1849.5 MD

Sea products

Dates

Cereals derivates

Agrumes Horticultural products

Olive oil

Value of agricultural importations in 2009: 2432.7 MD

Vegetable oils

SugarSea products

Cereals

Presentation of I. R. E. S. A• 6 Research Institutes • 4 Regional Research Centers

- 2 Regional branches- 11 Higher Education Institutes - 20 experimental stations- 15 incubators for creating spin off• 28 Research Laboratories • 15 Research units

- 270 Researchers (full time)• 380 Scientists • U.Y. 2010/2011: 413 Doctorates and 933 Masters

• For more details, please consult the IRESA’s Web site: www.iresa.tn

• www.facebook.com/iresa.tunisie

Plan for Agricultural Research

The priorities items established by Tunisia are:

• Food security• Preservation and sustainable management of natural

resources (water, soil, erosion,…)• Development of crops of high added value for

exportation • Management of abundance of some products• Quality of agricultural products (vegetables and

animals)

Priorities13 priority domains were identified (June 2010)

• Cereals, legumes and forages • Natural resources (water, soil, forestry) and climate change• Breeding & animal feeding• Tree crop productions• Horticultural crops• Aridology & Oasian agriculture• Agricultural mechanization • Fishing and fish farming • Animal health • Organic agriculture • Post harvest: transformation and industrialisation of agricultural products • Plant protection & Quality of agricultural products • Socio economy aspects and agricultural policies

Priorities are set up by Commissions of Programmation, Evaluation of Research in Agriculture (CPERAs) formed by researchers, scientists, representatives of development and farmers.

The new Strategy

An evaluation of the first decennial strategy (1999-2008) was undertaken by the National Committee of Evaluation of Research Activities (CNEAR).

A new decennial plan was prepared. It includes new programs such as:• Organic agriculture• Climate change• Post harvest• Plant protection• Quality of agricultural products• Socio economy aspects & agricultural policies.

ICT in Tunisia

Internet users : 4.000 000Subscribers : 600.000 ( broadband : 518.000)Official email address : 700.000 Domain names (.tn) : 16.800Web sites : 12.000Internet service providers (ISP) : 123G Providers : 3

               IP Backbone  Internet Service Provider  IRESA

BackboneTunisie Télécom

PoP IRESABéja

PoPIRESA

Kairouan

PoPIRESASousse

Eumedconnect Router project

ATI Kasbah

PoPIRESA Kasbah

(Ancienne Salle ATI)

IRESA 30, rue Alain Savary

Tunis

PoP IRESASfax

PoP IRESAMédenine

PoPIRESAGafsa

9 PoPs : Point of presence

MainPoP IRESA

Kasbah

Tunisian Agency of Internet

PoP IRESA

Nabeul

FO 30 Mb.

VRF

F.O 1GbVRF

1 Gb

100 MNational

100 M F.OInternational

October 2011.

VRF

ESIATunisENMVet.

IRVTISEPBG Soukra

ISPA BizerteESA MograneISPTabarka

CNVZooSanitaire

CRDAs Ben Arous,

Manouba, Tunis, Ariana

BIRH

VRF

Researh institutes , higher education Institutes, regional research center, CRDA….

WANsWANs

LANs

• In IRESA : Division in charge of ICT (DTTIC: Division of information technology and communication)

5 engineers: 3 in computer network and 2  in computer programming4 analysts in computer programming1 technician in multimedia • IRESA is an Internet Service Provider (ISP ) for the

agriculture sector :Web and information system hosting,E-mail provider, Security, Management of the agricultural national network,Development and management of RAIS.  

ICT infrastructure and Capacity 1/2

ICT infrastructure and Capacity 2/2

• IRESA websites : W3C, Valid RSS

• www.facebook.com/iresa.tunisie• Twitter : @IRESA_Tunisie

• CIARD member

• OpenData project

• IRESA use Horizon for virtual library• improve the library information systems such as:

- Cataloging and classification,- Circulation,- Provision,- Procurement.• The library of the agricultural scientific resources allows

reaching electronic resources with knowing: - the national and foreign collective catalogs in the agricultural field - bibliographical databases -) –

• Electronic resources 1000 (thesis, memories...) full text .• Dictionaries and thesaurus (Agrovoc)• This library is actually online www.birsa.agrinet.tn

Library information systems

• This experience started in 2004 with Water resources courses for technician degree.

• Many efforts were deployed in capacity building for teachers in digital pedagogy.

• Other specialties: (field crops, animal health)• Number of courses: 40• This distance learning system is composed of the following

items: courses, discussion forum, chat, agenda and mail. • Learners having had their diplomas: 500

• We plan to adopt scorm Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) : collection of standards

Distance learning

• All scientific and technical staff of the NARS has Internet access from their office and E-mail. ( LAN and wifi)

• All institutes have electronic library subscriptions such as American Chemical Society, Blackwell, Elsevier, IEEE, Informs, Proquest and Thomson Scientific. All of their scientific and technical staff and students have access to these libraries.

• The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) (an easy-to-use database that gives users immediate access to full-text PDF articles) is used over the local area network and is updated every year.

 

Existing mechanisms of accessing and exchanging information

• All institutes are connected to the Internet and intranet by the national agricultural network (AGRINET) which is managed by the IRESA and they are also connected to EUMEDCONNECT (The EUMEDCONNECT network serves the research and education communities of the Mediterranean region, and is linked to the pan-European GÉANT2 network) Each institute is connected with a leased line and at least 1 Mbps of bandwidth or fiber optic.

• Number of scientific computing servers: 2• Ratio of Number of computers with Number of Scientific

Staff: 1

Available infrastructure and financial facilities

• Since 2008, IRESA organized a steering committee in ICT and a steering and management committees for information security. These steering committees are headed by the president of IRESA.

• At the national level, a study defined and adopted a national policy/strategy in ICT ( E-gov)

( benchmarking, policy/strategy, roadmap)• IRESA participated in the evaluation and validation of this

study ( adoption of the national strategy).

Policy and strategies

• IRESA is member of :• FARA• ARIMNET ( portal, database, communication tools)

developed by IRESA • AARINENA

Mohsen KRICHIkrichi@iresa.tn