Semantic agricultural wiki

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There has been significant interest in applying the practices of semantic web to build an online repository of agricultural information in recent times. An example is the pioneering efforts of the DEAL group in conceptualising an AGROPEDIA for India [1]. The Wiki has offered unprecedented opportunities in collaborative content development while tools of the semantic web will offer altogether new advantages in terms of search and personalisation, to mention just two. The AGROVOC English language keywords has been used to generate classifications for content description at a top level.

We used the 17 broad categories of AGROVOC English terms to harvest entries from Wikipedia. Based on these categories, as the top level keywords, we noted that agricultural content forms a relatively minor part of Wikipedia classified under 53 subcategories. A total of 1000 entries, as of 6 July 2007, were downloaded and posted onto a local Wiki server, running MediaWiki software. A semantic tool (available at http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki) was used to create additional tags in the hosted entries and links were formed. The searches inside the semantically re-constructed collection are more specific compared to searches on the downloaded collection from Wikipedia. An even more interesting possibility that emerges is the ease with which the entries can be constituted into information objects that can be reused because their relationships with other objects in this re-constituted domain are rich and complex.

VASAT is a strategic coalition for information, communication and capacity building, operating in South Asia (SA), and West and Central Africa (WCA) in partnership with the Desert Margins Program (DMP). VASAT links and mobilizes stakeholders for drought mitigation in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). It is an innovative and cost-effective medium to educate and support a critical mass of rural women and men spread across vast geographical areas by informing them about good agricultural practices to drought and desertification. It is a response to the need of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to implement a communication strategy for combating drought and desertification.