Enhancing agricultural research with FAO’s AGRIS and AGROVOC programs: A conversation with IITA knowledge management team

In a recent series of conversations with CGIAR Knowledge Management teams, Sara Jani and Valentina De Col from ICARDA interviewed members of IITA's knowledge management team, Olayemi Oluwasoga, Open Data Engagement Manager, and Olawamiwa Adeoluwa, Data Analyst and Archival Specialist. They explored CGIAR's collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on AGRIS and AGROVOC. AGRIS is a comprehensive bibliographic database focused on agriculture and nutrition, while AGROVOC is a multilingual thesaurus covering a wide range of agricultural terms.

Benefits of being in AGRIS

Q: IITA has shared its knowledge products with AGRIS and plans to do so more. What benefits do you see in being part of AGRIS?

Olayemi: Since we began sharing our data with AGRIS, we have observed a significant increase in traffic to our data repository, which has enhanced visibility and increased citations for our researchers. The partnership has elevated the global recognition of our data, attracting attention not only from within Africa, where our work is centered, but also from Europe and the Americas. Another key benefit has been the improvement in metadata extraction and standardization, which has streamlined our data management processes.

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