INTERNET AS A NEW FACTOR OF AGRARIAN DEVELOPMENT

^INTERNET^{AS A NEW FACTOR OF AGRARIAN DEVELOPMENT}

^{Dr. Alexander O. Makeev}

^Director

^{Foundation for Agrarian Development
Research (FADR)}

^{Moscow, Russia}

^{Since the disintegration of the Soviet
Union, the Russian agrarian sector has been going through a transition
in which no concrete strategies for change have emerged. Collective
and state farms have dissolved, and some have been replaced by
individual farms with little capital. Lack of the State support
and the price disparities caused the situation in which the rural
people have limited knowledge of how to operate in this new atmosphere.
At the same time, the officials responsible for agrarian reform
have limited knowledge of what is really happening at the grass-roots
and even at the regional level. Unfortunately, the real process
of agrarian transformation follows the political imperatives,
backed by quasi-information. To elaborate an effective and successful
agrarian policy it is necessary to have the following:}

^{×
adequate information on situations in different regions of Russia,}

^{×
opportunity to use both positive and negative world experience
in agrarian reforming. Internationalization of the world information
resources should help to develop national policies in the field
of agrarian development and land use practices. The latter is
important for all countries, but especially for Russia and for
the countries of the former Soviet Union, where access to foreign
experiences was limited until recently.}

^{×
Agrarian reform in Russia should be regarded as a part of building
a new society. The Russian population should have access to information
and actively participate in the reform process by creating NGO's
and actively collaborating with official institutions.}

^{The world is now moving towards information
society and new information technologies which may help to solve
the above problems. Electronic networking options, rapidly developing
everywhere, are of special importance. Thanks to these options,
the abstract definition of the "World Information Resources"
has gained it's real meaning. Only the Internet has tens of million
of users in nearly all countries of the world.}

^{Telecommunications now play an important
role in World Agrarian Development. In 1990 upon the initiative
of the US and Indian Governments an International Forum for development
of the sustainable land use systems (INFORUM) was formed to meet
the demand for information exchange among 132 countries. By now
there are several hundreds agricultural mailing lists. Among the
most important moderated conferences are those, supported by INFORUM
(SARD-Forum - Sustainable Agriculture Research and Development),
which are now taking place on the UNDP server. Numerous databases
on different aspects of agrarian development (economic, legal,
ecological resources, etc.) are also accessible on the World
Wide Web and their number is continuously increasing.}

^{Having the possibility of exchanging
the information is an important step in creating successful reform
opportunities. Only the possibility of networking may satisfy
the following demands for information needed for a successful
agrarian development planning:}

^{×
Unlimited access to all information sources required at different
geographic levels (local, regional, national and global);}

^{×
The possibility of direct information exchange between all interested
partners.}

^{In spite of the deficiencies in modern
communication facilities, networking possibilities are actively
developing in Russia. Only in 1995 the total volume of foreign
investments in telecommunications reached US $1 billion. By now
practically all regional (oblast) centers have access to electronic
mail services, which allow them also to participate in electronic
conferences. Such opportunities are now also appearing at the
county (raijon) level. Networking options are now actively used
by foreign companies entering Russia's agricultural market.}

^{The Russian Ministry of Agriculture
recently initiated a big Aris Project on developing a telecommunication
system with the World Bank financial support (US $250 million
loan). The Project implementation plan envisages that all 89 regional
centers of Russia and about 500 local (raijon) centers will be
linked to share information on legal and economic issues, and
will monitor prices of main agricultural products, etc. The Aris
system users will have access to several databases. According
to the Russian Minister of Agriculture, the Aris Project will
help to restore and strengthen regional links, which is of primary
importance when considering the vast size Russia.}

^{The new information technologies which
are already part of the Russian reality and have found its place
in the agrarian sphere must also be used effectively for the benefit
of the rural populations.}

^{Unfortunately, one of the main constraints
is not the lack of access to these new information technologies,
but the fact that for many organizations in Russia, information
exchange seems something very distant from their daily needs.
Lack of interest in information exchange is a reality not only
for rural audience. According to the estimates, powerful backbone
channels are used only at 20% of their capacities.}

^{Main goals of use of telecommunications
in agrarian development}

^{Legal support to the Russian Government
bodies (Parliament, Federal and regional Governments) is very
important now when a great number of legal Acts is being rapidly
developed. It is evident that legal decisions should be based
on specific domestic, but also on a wide spectrum of legal practices
of other countries. At the request of the Russian Parliament,
the Foundation for Agrarian Development Research (FADR) studied
world information sources of the Internet, regarding Soil Protection
Acts. The FADR was faced with the fact that legal decisions in
different countries are made by different official institutions
according to their historical traditions. In the United States,
for example, the legal Acts on land use are in the US code, Supreme
Court Regulations and USDA Documents (Natural Resources Conservation
Service). There is no uniformity in dividing the competence between
Federal and regional administrations. In some other countries,
the most important regulations for land use were made by the regional
and even local administrations. So direct citation of foreign
Acts, which unfortunately is a frequent practice in political
debates, is inadequate. It is therefore necessary to provide
complex analyses of the whole juridical system, including the
mechanism of implementation of legal Acts. The study of legal
practices of different countries confirms that such a mechanism
is one of the most important parts of the juridical system.}

^{Among the mechanisms of implementation
of legal Acts is a lobbying technique, still lacking in Russia.
Discussions on the 1995 Farm Bill have recently finished in the
US. This event seemed so important, that a delegation of Russian
deputies visited the US to become familiar with this procedure.
The FADR used the Internet to obtain the necessary information.
A special Web site was established to follow the Farm Bill discussions.
It contains megabytes of information, including all the debates,
numerous comments, summaries, etc. Mailing lists also played
an important role through which the FADR often received papers
entitled: "Farmers vote through Internet". This example
shows that telecommunication is a very democratic instrument which
may allow a farmer from a distant region to participate easily
in both national and international events as an equal partner.
This makes networking facilities especially attractive for the
former socialist countries, where until recently everything was
centralized.}

^{It is necessary to develop an information-consulting
agency which would serve the needs of the Russian Parliament,
and which would use modern information technologies to provide
legal practice analyses, based on world information sources available
on the Internet. Similar agencies now exist for Parliaments of
many other countries.}

^{Ecological crisis and other phenomena
related to natural resource deficiencies, bring about the awareness
of the need for a new approach to land use as a global priority
(systems of landscape-adaptive, sustainable, alternative, and
biological agriculture). In 1994 INFORUM conducted the first International
electronic conference on Indicators of Sustainability with more
then 200 experts from all continents. Among the most important
results of this Conference was the participation of scientists
from many "new" countries. By now numerous moderated
electronic conferences and mailing lists established partnership
for thousands of experts from tens of different countries. There
are English-speaking, French-speaking, Spanish-speaking groups.
Unfortunately, participation of Russian scientists is still not
very active, and valuable Russian experience in regenerative agriculture
is still fairly unknown to the world community. Such participation
is of great importance especially because of the shortage of funds
for international travel.}

^{Internet also allows to have an access
to the new technologies in land evaluation systems, resource base
planning, agro-ecological monitoring, which is of great importance
for Russia in the period of land ownership reforms.}

^{The need for development of a nationwide
electronic system for information exchange on rural issues is
obvious. We know very little about what really happens in different
regions. On the other hand, the regions have no tools to influence
federal policy since the feedback system has not been developed
yet. Electronic mailing lists and moderated conferences will enable
numerous participants from different regions of Russia to contribute
to decision making on a regional, national and even international
level.}

^{The system of electronic communications
is also necessary for sharing experiences of agrarian reform between
different regions of Russia (privatization, models of agrarian
reform, monitoring of migration processes and demographic situation,
etc.).}

^{For many countries undergoing the
process of agrarian reform the Russian experience, even when negative,
may be of interest. For Russia as well, the experience of both
of developing and developed countries is very important. For example
the USA, Sweden, Israel and Japan all have different agrarian
reform approaches. The Green revolution of India and Chinese experience
help to formulate new alternatives. Sharing experiences with the
countries of the former socialist block, however, is of major
importance. There are now mailing lists especially devoted to
this problem, e.g., CEEPN (Central and East European Privatization
network); CEEMAN (Central and East European Management Development
Association). CEEMAN recently conducted an International Conference
in Saint-Petersburg, entitled: "From reforming to stable
improvement: lessons from the best companies". These great
number of electronic conferences demonstrates, once more, that
the modern approach to information exchange is becoming more and
more important.}

^{Mailing list RUSAG (Russian Agriculture)
issues regular information on political events in Russia related
to the Russian agrarian reform from the standpoint of foreign
observers.}

^{Lack of an effective system of information
exchange restricts the new forms of management and marketing.
Positive experience in this field remains unknown. There are difficulties
in establishing direct links with the partners in different regions
of Russia and abroad. The Western standards, based on thorough
information surveys, remain unknown to the Russian businessmen.
At the same time, however, commercial cooperation via Internet
is developing very actively also in agribusiness. There are servers,
oriented towards the Russian agricultural market, e.g. BIZNIS
(business for New Independent States) and many others.}

^{The above makes obvious the necessity
to develop electronic networking options to help Agrarian reform
and the rural population. To this end, the FADR, a Russian nonprofit
organization, has developed information networking capabilities
in Russia and backed the collaboration between the FADR, other
Russian NGOs and official structures dealing with important rural
development issues. FADR was formed in 1993 in response to the
growing concern over the uncertain fate of the agricultural sector.}

^{FADR comprised over 100 individual
members, numerous scientific institutions and NGOs, with new alliances
and partnerships growing continually. Members include the Association
of Peasant Farmers and Rural Cooperatives, the Russian Academy
of Sciences, Moscow and People's Friendship University, the Center
for Humanitarian Studies, and many others. FADR also cooperates
with numerous international organizations, including INFORUM,
Rodale Institute, the Academy for Farming Systems Research and
Extension, the Central and Eastern European Privatization Network,
Center for Citizens Initiatives, etc.}

^{FADR: Mission is to create an
independent Russian Rural Information Network.}

^{The main goal of the FADR are the
following:}

^{×
to establish networks for information exchange both between groups
and individuals in Russia and to link these groups with regional
and global networks;}

^{×
to promote efficient and sustainable land use systems in Russia;}

^{×
to implement environmental education programs;}

^{×
to assist people in adapting to new forms of land use.}

^{To meet these goals FADR is developing
the following activities:}

^{Communication}

^{Presently FADR has full and unlimited
access to information sources on the Internet and has created
its own home page on the World Wide Web in English and Russian
(Windows code) versions. This home page includes a brief description
of the organization and its objectives, supplies information about
its current activities and gives a partial list of its partners.
The FADR's World Wide Web address is:}

^{http://www.fadr.msu.ru.}

^{FADR also places information supplied
by its regional centers and its partners. FADR suggests that any
NGO may input its information.}

^{The FADR's Electronic Library includes
documents, software and Universal Resources Locator (URL) collections
related to different aspects of agricultural development and electronic
communication possibilities. In addition, FADR provides space
for their partners to present their information on the Web.}

^{The FADR FTP Server has the latest
software necessary for electronic communication development (TCP/IP
clients) and also the documents and software relevant to various
aspects of the environmental sciences.}

^{The following information is available
on FADR's Server:}

^{×
The book "A Guide to Electronic Communications in Russia"}

^{×
Information about FADR training courses}

^{Homepages of our partners on the FADR
server include:}

^{×
"http://fadr.msu.ru/~rus-farm/" Working Group for Land
Privatization and Farm Reorganization in Russia}

^{×
"http://fadr.msu.ru/rodale/" Rodale Institute}

^{×
"http://fadr.msu.ru/~yakushev/novsad.html" "Noviy
Sadovod i Fermer" Magazine}

^{×
"http://igc.apc.org/cci" Center for Citizens Initiatives}

^{URL Collection}

^{This section of the page contains
links to interesting pages related to agricultural and computing
topics. The agricultural section has links to FoodNet, the Web's
virtual agricultural library and pages on topics such as Agricultural
Education,}

^{Agricultural Science, Crop Protection
and Economic Information. The Computing section contains links
to pages with free software, Graphics, Internet information,
Fax services, FAQs and Search Engines. Furthermore, the organization
has a series of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and links to
other WWW resources on agriculture and computing.}

^{To reach the Russian audience FADR
has initially selected four regions to establish information centers
and to initiate its work: Novosibirsk in Western Siberia 3,500
km from Moscow, Tver, a forest region in central Russia 200 km
from Moscow, Volgograd and Astrakhan, a semi-arid region 1200
km south of Moscow and Orel, a steppe region 400 km away Moscow.
Selection of these regions was based on their diversity in agrarian
policy, level of economic resources, infrastructure, soils and
climate. FADR currently has 138 regional partners. These partners
include governmental agencies, scientific and educational institutions,
NGOs, farmers' associations, businesses, and individuals. Most
of the partners participate in FADR's information exchange system.
Partners are particularly interested in receiving information
on market prices and how to market their food products successfully.}

^{To link partners FADR maintains its
own electronic listserver, FADRnews, to which dozens of groups
and individuals from throughout Russia subscribe. Interested parties
can subscribe by sending the message:}

^{×
subscribe.srcc.fadrnews}

^{to the following address:}

^{×
Newserver@srcc.msu.su}

^{The listserver currently presents
the following list of topics:}

^{×
Global News: News from over 40 electronic bulletin boards dealing
with agricultural, environmental, and rural development issues;}

^{×
National and Regional News: These inputs are provided by regional
coordinators;}

^{×
Announcements about different events and conferences; and}

^{×
Information on cooperative programs, requests for participation,
information on sources of financial support, job opportunities
and other current information.}

^{FADR also produces a quarterly electronic
journal, ^{Agrarian Development}^{, which was
initiated in February, 1995. The journal contains updates on agrarian
reform policies from regions throughout Russia and on agricultural
developments in the US and other countries.}}

^{At present FADR is conducting an International
electronic conference on privatization and agrarian reform in
Russia (social, economic and ecological aspects). This conference
started in March. The conference is held in two versions: English
and Russian, with English participants subscribing via the United
Nations Development Program server in New York and Russian participants
- via the FADR server. Over 100 people from Russia, Germany,
India, Chile, Canada and the US have registered to take part in
the conference via their computers.}

^{The following people have been selected
to fulfil specific functions in the conference:}

^{Conference Chair: Dmitri Durmanov,
FADR President;}

^{durmanov@dmitri.msk.ru}

^{Conference Moderator: Alex Makeev,
FADR Director;}

^{makeev@fadr.msu.ru}

^{Conference Information Manager: Evengeniy
Yakushev;}

^{yakushev@fadr.msu.ru}

^{Conference Manager: Bob Hart; bhart@undp.org}

^{The following conference subscription
instructions are taken from the Conference Announcement which
FADR has distributed to multiple electronic listservers and news
servers:}

^{To participate in this electronic
conference you must subscribe to the SARD-ROOM4 list on the UNDP
computer. Send an electronic mail message with one-line of text
(the Subject line is optional) that reads:}

^{subscribe sard-room4 name@domain}

^{Where "name@domain" is your
Internet Email Address. Send this one-line message to:}

^{majordomo@undp.org}

^{You will receive an Email message
back from the Majordomo Listserver acknowledging your subscription.
You may receive a message back that your subscription has been
sent to the List Moderator for approval (this occurs when the
address which is in the header of your Email message is different
from the address you write in your subscription message).}

^{When your subscription is confirmed
you will receive a welcome message from SARD-ROOM4 asking you
to introduce yourself. You will be asked to send an Email message
with your name, address, institution, technical interests, etc.
to the Email address of the Conference Room, which is:}

^{sard-room4@undp.org}

^{After following these steps, your
subscription is complete.}

^{Although there is an acute need for
information, the information market has not been established in
Russia yet and not many clients are ready to pay for information.
This applies both, to government institutions (no funds to pay
even salaries) and agribusiness, leaving aside the NGO's. However,
such a market undoubtedly will start to form in the nearest future.
The limiting factor for many potential clients is lack of access
to telecommunications, therefore it is necessary to find cheap
ways to enlarge the access to the FADR network.}

^{At presents, since many possible partners
do not have direct access to telecommunications, it is necessary
to develop a system of further distribution of information, delivered
electronically. For this reason the FADR regional centers are
responsible for making their contribution to local newsletters,
published for rural people.}

^{FADR also combines electronic and
traditional Conferences and Workshops to encourage people to present
case studies on different aspects of agrarian development. In
1995-1996 FADR conducted 5 International Conferences. Among them:
Land and ownership (together with Orel regional administration,
Orel, April,1995); Perspectives of sustainable agriculture in
Russia, Moscow, April, 1995); Agrarian reform in Russia (together
with Russian Parliament, Moscow, November, 1995); New rich and
new poor (Moscow, April, 1996). Regional and interregional workshops
aim to design multi-institutional rural development projects for
the benefit of rural populations.}

^{Modelling relations between rural
NGO's and official institutions.}

^{FADR is moving towards its long-term
objective to develop an independent national rural information
network. In this line FADR is trying not to oppose Government
agencies, but to establish cooperation as an independent consultant
agency. FADR staff are the members of Environmental and Agricultural
Committees of the Russian Parliament and were helping to draft
the Soil Protection Act. The key role of FADR in this exercise
was to provide a broad international spectrum of possible legal
decisions, based on the information available on the World Wide
Web. FADR was also requested to present recommendations for laws
on the stabilization of agriculture in Russia by the year 2000
and on the agricultural microbiology. In April upon the initiative
of the Russian Senate speaker Professor E. Stroev, FADR was invited
to join the Working Group on the elaboration of the Concept of
Agrarian Reform in Russia.}

^{FADR has established relations with
other information agencies, operating in Russia. An agreement
was signed with Aris Network of the Ministry of Agriculture and
opened links according to which all the participants of the Aris
network may receive information from FADRnews, and vice-versa,
FADR participants may be provided with the information available
on the Aris network (market and prices monitoring, commercial
information, legal issues, etc.). At present, Aris program has
no Internet access, therefore it was agreed that the FADR should
be responsible for providing Global information resources. FADR
also established cooperation with the information network of the
Ministry of Environmental Protection.}

^{In addition to the above, the FADR
developed cooperation with a nationwide network of agricultural
colleges. There are more than 250 such colleges in Russia, training
skilled workers of different profiles - from agronomists and veterinarians
to rural construction workers and accountants. These people are
future farmers, extension agents, agribusinessmen, local authorities,
etc. All these colleges are linked with network under the leadership
of a special Technical Education Department of the Ministry of
Agriculture. FADR has therefore established cooperation with the
Department and is thus responsible for supplying the information
to colleges, providing consultations on training methodologies,
and giving practical examples of training performed in other countries.
Furthermore, under this scheme, the FADR organizes training courses
on sustainable agriculture and training on extension. The main
goal of this FADR initiative is to gain access to nationwide audience
and to get a free tool for information distribution.}

^{Furthermore, the FADR established
a strong cooperation with the Agricultural Universities which
all have a great need for information. Agricultural Department
of Peoples Friendship University was adopted as a base for such
cooperation.}

^{FADR keeps contacts with regional
governments. In Orel FADR has a common information center, organized
with the help of the Governor of Orel oblast Prof. E. Stroev.}

^{FADR has also established contacts
with Agricultural Scientific Institutions. For example under the
agreement made with the Russian Soil Science Society all regional
departments of the institution are invited to participate in a
FADR information exchange system. Thanks to the advertising organized
by the Russian Soil Science Society, over 100 institutions became
FADR collective members and partners in information exchange.}

^{Implementing new forms of agricultural
practice.}

^{One of FADR's goals is to create the
infrastructure which will encourage and foster sustainable land
use in Russia. FADR is studying World information sources on ecological
and regenerative agriculture issues and is trying to make these
resources available to a broad circle of possible users. FADR
participates in numerous electronic mailing lists and moderated
conferences on sustainable agriculture and indicators of sustainability,
ecological enhancement through agriculture, food safety, etc.
The most interesting papers are transmitted to FADRnews mailing
list. FADR is also developing Projects in different regions designed
to conduct applied research on some aspect of land use practices
and their improvement in the area. The projects are designed to
inform, through training and education, the agricultural community
on the implementation of techniques acquired through the research
that enhance the region's ability to produce healthy food on healthy
soil.}

^{Making agrarian reform a part of
building civil society}

^{FADR is trying to consolidate activities
of different Russian and foreign NGOs in order to create nationwide
movement which may help to bring a wide participation of people
in agrarian reform. An International Conference "Agrarian
reform in Russia as a part of building civil society", scheduled
for October 1996 has the following Agenda:}

^{×
The role of community development and public awareness in agrarian
reforming - rural NGOs;}

^{×
Extension service for farmers and agricultural cooperatives and
it role in income generation of rural population;}

^{×
Promotion of new approaches to land use (sustainable agriculture
and food security): technological and educational aspects;}

^{×
Russian agriculture in the future: Western outlook. Crucial points
for technical assistance.}

^{FADR is proposing its nationwide networking
system to the audience inside and outside of Russia as a communication
tool for public movement.}