Management of Scientific Information for Agricultural Research in Mauritius

Ng Kee Kwong, R., Ballantyne, Peter G.. 1992. Management of Scientific Information for Agricultural Research in Mauritius. International Service for National Agricultural Research

This case study discusses the approaches used by the agricultural research system of Mauritius to obtain and manage scientific information. Information access is reviewed in relation to the demand for information by the research system, the sources of information that it has access to, and the mechanisms used to actually obtain and manage the information. The most significant characteristic of demand is the overwhelming 1m portance of the sugar crop to the national economy, the desire to make the industry more efficient, and the need to diversify the agricultural sector without prejudicing sugar production. Libraries and information centers are the dominant formal mechanisms that are used to acquire and manage scientific information. These have developed in relative isolation from each other and examples of joint activities and active collaboration are rare. In addition, professional and technical associations or societies play an important role among scientists, especially in the sugar industry where they are a major linking mechanism with research elsewhere in the world. Participation in research networks is limited but will increase as the research system builds stronger contacts with the international agricultural research system and other national agricultural research systems. The study illustrates the difficulties that even a small country faces in trying to develop a coordinated information system from a group of disparate units with differing objectives and clientele, and little experience with working together. Other issues raised by the case study include the importance of organizational status and management support to an information unit, the need for appropriate information technologies, the difficulties posed when research project information systems are lacking, and the need for well-trained information personnel.