Professor Yanqing Duan in the Business School has visited China and Cambodia recently as part of a research project activity on improving Cambodia' Information and Knowledge Transfer in Agriculture Sector using Mobile Internet Technologies'. The ten-month project is part of the AgriTT Programme which is funded by the UK's Department For International Development (DFID).

The project involves four partners from China (Foreign Economic Cooperation Centre of China's Ministry of Agriculture, SuperMap), the UK (UoB) and Cambodia (Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute). AgriTT brings development practice and research expertise from China, the UK and developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia together to improve food security through technology transfer and knowledge sharing.

The key theme of the research is Innovation in Knowledge Sharing and Communication which aims to develop a platform to share knowledge and experiences on technology transfer partnerships between China, the UK and developing countries with policy-makers, agricultural practitioners and researchers.

The specific objective of the project is to improve the knowledge and information dissemination flow in the rural area of Cambodia by adapting China's experience on the use of mobile internet and other latest ICT technologies. Professor Duan, as a UK expert in transnational knowledge transfer using ICTs, visited Agriculture Information Service Centres in Hunan Province and Beijing in China in May 2014, to review the current development in China and identify the best practice and transfer models. She also visited Cambodia in June 2014 to understand the knowledge transfer needs and current information services provided to farmers in Cambodia.

The trip to Cambodia involved fields surveys with farmers in different villages, interviews with extension officers, focus group with experts, and workshop with practitioners, researchers and policy makers.

Professor Duan said that "Emerging ICTs are playing an essential role in facilitating information dissemination and knowledge transfer. I am fascinated by the China's achievements in transferring information and knowledge to the hands of farmers using emerging ICTs, especially using smart phones, and the impact of the knowledge transfer on improving agricultural productivity. It is very important for low income countries in South Asia, such as Cambodia, to learn from China's experience and adapt their best practice. The field visits in China and Cambodia were eye-opening experience and provided me with unique insights that enable me to understand the farmers' needs and to establish the most suitable knowledge transfer solutions using ICTs"

During Prof Duan's visit to China, she was invited to give a talk on "Big Data and Analytics in Agriculture Sector" in China Agricultural University. Agriculture Sector is experiencing a revolution with the applications of Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics. The new technologies are transforming traditional farming practice to a new era, so technology and innovation transfer is the key for speeding up this transformation.

For more information about the project, please visit:

AgriTT - Application of Mobile Internet Technology for Agricultural Information Dissemination in Cambodia