Current status of ICT structure and applications existed to manage and disseminate information on Knowledge of agricultural biotechnology innovation

information in Morocco

Workshop on Agricultural biotechnology for Knowledge sharing in NENA Region

Cairo Egypt2-4 July 2012

Mr Otman Sebbata IT SpecialistColl: Dr Driss IRAQI Biotechnologist/ Mrs Fatima Gaboune Biometrist

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique(INRA) Rabat, Morocco.

June 2012

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List of Content:

1 Background 12 Biotechnology in Morocco 12.1 Institutions involved in biotechnology: 2.2 INRA as a leading Institutions in Biotechnology:2.3 Collaboration and partnerships:

3 ICT infrastructure and Capacity 23.1 Hardware3.2 Software3.3 Bioinformatics Unit:

4. Information systems 25 Policy and strategies: 35.1 The Moroccan Constitution 20115.2 E-Morocco 2010: 5.3 Use of Standards5.4 IPR issues in information management6 Contents 46.1 Genebanks: 6.2 Information on Projects6.3 Research results:6.3 Research results6.4. News and Events

7 ICT applications: 57.1 Biotechnology Management Tools7.2 Web application tools on biotechnology

8.Information and communication channels: 69.Information and communication services: 60.1 Institutional website:9.2 International websites:9.3 Thematic Specific websites9.4 Bibliographic databases 9.5 Extension and advisory information9.6 Market information

10. Conclusion: 6

11. References 8

Checklist for availability and accessibility of agricultural biotechnology research outputs 9

1. Background: Agriculture plays a major economic role in Morocco. It accounts for 19 % of total GNP with 15% from agriculture and 4% from agro-industry. 80% of the 14 millions rural populations depend on revenues from the agricultural sector.

Biotechnology is a national priority for Development of Science and Technology. It improves food production (Quantity & Quality) to to meet the National demand due to the increasing population, to manage the problems of biotic and abiotic stresses, to assist the breeding programs, and Characterize and add value to the local biodiversity

2 Biotechnology in MoroccoStarted in 80’s with the use of plant tissue culture technique as a tool in crop improvement program

2.1 Institutions involved in biotechnology:

1. The National Institute of Agricultural Research “INRA” which is leadingnational research organization in agricultural biotechnology inMorocco with a network of 10 Regional Research Centers and23 Experimental stations

2. The Hassan II Institute of Agronomy & Veterinary medicine: IAV, 3. The National College of Agriculture of Meknès: ENA Meknes 4. Water and Forest Administration: CNRF 5. Faculties of Sciences and Technology: FST6. Private companies producing at a large scale banana, date palm,

strawberry and potato in-vitro planting materials.7. Professional associations to promote contacts and interactions between

biotechnologists through workshops and similar activities

2.2 INRA as a leading Institutions in Biotechnology:

INRA has developed capacities and capabilities in agricultural biotechnology research in its regional centers.

Marrakech: Development of Date palm tissue culture propagation methods

Errachidia: Large scale Date palm micropropagation using developed Tissue culture methods set in Marrakech to meet the increasing demand (3,212,000 of total demand for plantlets in 2007)

Kenitra: Genetic diversity and studies on tissue culture of citrus

Settat / Meknes: Application of Molecular marker for wheat breeding

Rabat: A new strategy was elaborated to integrate biotechnology as major tools in agricultural research (genetic crop improvement programs, tissue culture, molecular markers Gene Cloning and Characterization and genetic transformation of plant, food Microorganisms Molecular characterization)

2.3 Collaboration and partnerships:

Collaborative research programs with NARS (IAV, ENAMeknes and

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Universities) and with IARCs (ICARDA, IAEA, IPGRI, ICGEB, ASTF, European commission) and NARS in countries (France, USA, Italy, Belgium, Portugal …etc)

A consortium between Moroccan NARS (INRA / IAV and ENAM) was set aiming in the biotechnology field to develop a joint biotech lab for collaborative programs for effective use of local expertise and available resources within the consortium

Biotech networks in Morocco are means for collaboration between NARS

3 ICT infrastructure and Capacity3.1 HardwareICT infrastructure is evolving steadily. “INRA” have made very important progress in the use of information technology. Over 450 of desktop computers are currently installed, most of which are of last generation but some are of old generations (Intel Pentium 4- based). Most scientists have their own The Pcs are running with mixture of windows XP, Vista and Win 7

Servers are mostly based in central sites. They are using windows server NT, 2000 and 2003. In addition Linux and HP-UX are also used for internet services management.

3.2 SoftwareFor desktop applications, MS office is widely used. INRA research centers and biotech research Unit are equipped with PCs using biotech specific software and DTP tools ( Data acquisition hardware, Computer, peripherals, and applications software (word processing, spreadsheets, DBMS, and Statistical packages);

PCs are networked to small and medium LANs with access to the Internet (20 Mo Leased Line in Rabat and DSL ranging from 8 to 20 Mo in all regional Centers)

3.3 Bioinformatics Unit:The major focus of the bioinformatics unit is to develop information management systems using available tools that provide the required data capture, storage query and access interfaces to meet the demands .

Managed by a biometric specialist with a bioinformatic background

Mission: supporting the work done by the biotech research unit in Rabat.

Provided with PCs equipment under Windows and linux OS and applications tools (DTP, Statisitcal packages and specific biotech softwares) with access to the Internet.

Helping biotech and non biotech researchers to design their research protocols in addition to searching biotech databases (NCBI, Swissport, Unipro) and processing their collected data (statistical analysis)

The Bioinformatics Unit is hosting students from Moroccan Universities who develop application tools used in bioinformatics

4. Information systems

Information systems is a set of applications to support the major functions and activities of NARS . With the advent of Internet, Websites are becoming the basis of any information systems for information management and communication

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Moroccan NARS websites started in late 90’s with a descriptive html file related to the institution mission and organizational chart and evolved in the last decade to integrate more complicated systems. We no longer talk about website but portals with thematic and regional websites.

The used Content management system CMS , is enabling any user with an account to collaborate and make update in specific webpages. In addition to management of information workflow and life cycle.

So far, existing websites are not numerous in biotechnology, but this aspect can be found in a category or some thematic databases in the following list of Moroccan websites:

List of websites: Name URL The Ministry of Agriculture and fisheries(Dept of agriculturel

www.madrpm.gov.ma

The National Institute of Agricultural Research www.inra.org.ma webagris.inra.org.ma :120/agriswww.pgrfa.org/gpa/mar/welcome.htmx

The Hassan II institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Science

www.iav.ac.ma

The Hassan II institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Science: the School of Horticulture in Agadir

www.iavcha.ac.ma

The National School of Agriculture in Meknes

www.enameknes.ac.ma

Water and forestry CNRF http://www.eauxetforets.gov.ma/

The Moroccan association of Bioinformatics www.smbi-maroc.org/ www.smbi.ma

5 Policy and strategies: 5.1 The Moroccan Constitution 2011: The new Moroccan constitution (2011) in its article 27, stressed that Citizens have the right to access information held by public authorities, elected institutions and bodies invested with a public service. This objective is opening access to information. Decision makers became more receptive to information sharing and are boosting access to information through networks and portals;

5.2 E-Morocco 2010: An ambitious project “E-Morocco 2010” was launched in 2005 to set up a knowledge economy and reduce digital divide:

• Content development: Avail a Moroccan content : structured, useful, updated and adapted to targeted users needs;

• Strengthening ICT infrastructures in terms of offered capacity and improve the quality of services ;

• Training based on profiles needs ;• Internet access: simplifying and generalization of access to internet;• ICT Industry: development of national productive and competitive ICT industry;• Tele-service: Development of call centers and offshore zone with ICT activities.

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5.3 Use of Standards : standards are being used in order to facilitate information exchange with regional and international information systems (FAO, ICARDA …) 5.4 IPR issues in information management : Concerns different aspects most important are patents, PVR (plant variety right and the copyright)Plant variety right (Official Catalogue) INRA used to register its released varieties in the Moroccan PVR (Official catalogue). In 2011, many varieties were registered regarding wheat, Bean, citrus tree, date palm and other fruit trees.

Some royalties are obtained from the released varieties to Private sector

Patent: INRA already signed agreement with the Moroccan patent office ww.ompic.ma and have registered some patents (including one in 2009 regarding biotechnology). It was agreed that at least, 10 patents will be registered annually.

In order to encourage researchers to be more innovative, a percentage of the benefit needed to be shared. This issue is pending and the Researchers’association is trying to submit a memorandum to convince Decision makers to share part of the benefits recovered from royalties with researchers.

6 Contents 6.1 Genebanks: National Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Morocco Genebank

• based at INRA Settat, developed for medium and long term conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources (4500 species of higher plants of which about 200 species are considered as rare or threatened) . It

• serves as a national repository for the collection of over 47000 germplasm accessions of different species.

• The collection serves as insurance against genetic erosion and as a source of resistance to diseases and pests, tolerance to climatic and other environmental stresses, and improved quality and yield traits for crop improvement.

• Application softwares : model used at genetic resources unit of ICARDA; and GRIS developed by IPGRI

• Information is accessed locally for collection management purpose

Plant genetic resources database related to plant genetic resources (The World information sharing mechanism on the implementation of the global plan of action (GPA) for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: with participation of major NARS institutions (INRA, IAVHII, ENA Meknes )

Information is accessed on the Net: www.pgrfa.org/gpa/mar/welcome.htmx

6.2 Information on Projects:Information on on-going projects related to biotech is made available on the net www.inra.org.ma

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6.3 Research results:Made of Posters, presentations on workshops and publications in books and papers in journal are partly managed in bibliographic databases that comply with agris standards http://webagris.inra.org.ma:120/agris

In addition, Patents: some findings results are patented and can be accessed via patent offices (www.ompic.ma and http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca )

Eg.: Biological control by the strain of mucl 47354 pichia guilliermondii diseases of post-harvest registered in 2007 registered at the Moroccan patent office www.ompic.ma Patent number :ma 30121 b1 date: 02.01.2009

Process for brewer's yeast debittering registered at the Canadian patent office Patent number:[45] : 5,716,653 date of patent feb. 10, 1998

6.4. News and Events: Published on the net through institutional Websites

7 ICT applications: 7.1 Biotechnology Management Tools:

Thanks to collaboration with IARCs (ICRISAT) some management tools are being tested for further implementation

1. Crop management information systems : integrated crop information system linking molecular, phenotypic and pedigree data.

2. Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) : designed to automate the sample workflow associated with molecular marker genotyping

3. Integrated Marker-Assisted Selection System iMAS : a single unified computing and decision support platform to facilitate identification of trait-linked markers for use in marker-aided selection and breeding

IMAS tool is currently used at the bioinformatics unit to analyze and process data collected by INRA’s Researchers.

7.2 Web application tools on biotechnologyDeveloped by Post graduate students for their Msc thesis projects. Six Web application tools so far developed on sugar beet, potatoes, grapevines, food legumes and cereals)

These tools provide access to a thematic databank (data on genomes downloaded from int. Database) and are used to input data on Moroccan crop genomes. Those tools will be installed on a server and used at local level by INRA’s researchers

Eg. Grape genome analysis: SSR identification and related Primer designUsed for searching for SSR or Short Sequence Repeat (SSR) in the entire genome of grape (Vitis vinifera), and design of SSR markers for identifying genes or screening for disease such as mildew and fan leaf virus Grape genome consists of 190 contigs, 2,745,612 SSR. Of Microsatellites grape genomes

Used Tools: NCBI (National Center for biotechnology information database

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MISA (Microsatellite) algorithm for SSR identification programming SSR research Use of Primer3 for Primer PCR identification Perl program for scripts Activeperl interpreter for Perl script running PHP language for web bioseq design Mysql as DBMs and Apache as web server

8.Information and communication channels: Informal channels:Invisible college: interaction between researchers from different institutions at national or international levels

Formal channels:• On site visits for students/and scientists• Workshops, and fairs• Scientific Meetings • Institutional Publications in different format (annual report, papers, books, leaflets, flyers etc)• Field demonstrations and farmer field school (FFS)

9.Information and communication services:

Information related the agricultural biotechnology is delivered through different 9.1 Institutional website:

• Information of research projects• List of Publications (books and journals)• News and events

9.2 International websites:• Data on Moroccan crop genomes is input in international websites (NSBI)

9.3 Thematic Specific websites:GPA website : The World information sharing mechanism on the implementation of the global plan of action (GPA) for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: with participation of major NARS institutions (INRA, IAVHII, ENAmekens www.pgrfa.org/gpa/mar/welcome.htmx

9.4 Bibliographic databases : INRA made use of WebAGRIS tools to publish on the Net its Reference database with links to full text (journal papers) webagris.inra.org.ma:120/agris

9.5 Extension and advisory information:INRA is collaborating to the production of an extension journal (190 issues) coordinated by the Directorate of Training and Research . Journal issues are on the net www.vulgarisation.net/bulletin.htm

9.6 Market information:A national website dedicated to market information was launched by the ministry of agriculture http://www.marocagriculture.com/maroc-agriculture/la-bourse-agricole

10. Conclusion:

NARS in Morocco have invested and set consortiums for research collaboration in order to initiate joint projects. Due to lack of awareness and limited number of skilled human

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resources in ICT and ICM, information and knowledge in biotechnology has to be strengthened by the use of existing tools that are commonly used and available at IARCs. In addition, the use of tools on institutions, expertise and projects at national and regional level will promote partnership at bi and multi lateral levels and will help to fulfill requirements and conditions set by sponsors for projects submission.

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11 References

Iraqi, D., Thami Alami, I., Abbad Andaoussi, F., Sripada M. UDUPA(2007) Agricultural Biotechnology Research In Morocco in: Regional Agricultural Biotechnology Network Expert Consultation Meeting 15-16 December Cairo-Egypte

Iraqi, D. (2007) Biotechnology Research In Morocco sauvegarde ): 8p.

Rchok Fatiha , Mojemmi, S. (2010) Développement d’outils Bioinformatiques pour L’automatisation de l’analyse du génome de la vigne Et du développement des microsatellites. (Msc Thesis) Faculté des sciences, Rabat, 94 p.

Ministry of Industry Trade and new technologies (2007) E-Morocco Strat&égy: Accomplishments, Perspectives and Action plans, 33 p. available at: http://www.abhatoo.net.ma/index.php/Maalama-Textuelle/D%C3%A9veloppement-%C3%A9conomique-et-social/D%C3%A9veloppement-social/Information-et-communication/Politique-d%27information/E-Morocco-2010-Strategy-Accomplishments,-Perspectives-Action-Plans-Towards-building-our-information-and-knowledge-society

Sebbata, O. (2011) The Status of Data and Information sharing in MoroccoIn: International Expert Consultation on “BUILDING THE CIARD FRAMEWORK FOR DATA AND INFORMATION SHARING” Beijing, China 20-23 June 2011INRA (2012) INRA Annual report 56 Available at: http://www.inra.org.ma/def.asp?codelangue=23&info=1171&rub=1097&rub1=&men=1

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Checklist for availability and accessibility of agricultural biotechnology research outputs

Checklist Items1. Ensure that your

research outputs are available digitally

• Are all types of document/object being captured? If not what is being captured and what is not, and how were decisions made on what types of content to capture?

Decision makers are pushing toward digitizing research outputs. The Awamia journal and most of scientific books are on the Net webagris.inra.org.ma/doc

• Does the organization’s digitization program include older documents that were originally produced in pre-digital formats (e.g. print on paper)?

• Does the organization have a formalized, managed system for this data capture as part of an overall digital strategy?

• INRA made investment for required material used for EDM• Why did the organization decide to go ahead with the program of

digitization? • The new director is boosting access to INRA information material in

electronic format backed by the new constitution• What was the impetus for this? INRA is not making benefits on

selling publications. Information can be valued through electronic media

2. Develop institutional or thematic repositories of your outputs as open archives.

• Did the organization (or network) develop a policy which governs all aspects of the repository’s activity – what types of information is captured in it, how long it is kept there, what formats the data must be in, quality control, copyright control, and so on? There is no policy which governs the aspects of repository’s activity. So far, Published information (institutional journals and books ) are being captured

• Is usage of the repository (documents deposited, hits, downloads, etc) being assessed in a planned way that allows informed decisions to be made on how to manage it and develop it further? If so – how much use? Not yet

• How much content is currently available, and at what rate is content being added? Over 50 % of official publications are being digitized

• How were the decisions taken as to what types of content would be held in the repository, and who took them? The Directorate of information and communication is in charge providing means to host repository

• Was the concept of ‘open’ information accepted by everyone, or was this an area of disagreement? What were the arguments for and against it? Researchers are not keen to collaborate. More recently, an invitation letter was sent to all researchers to invite them to collaborate in the process of developing a virtual library by sending their research report in electronic format. Only few ones sent their publications.

3. Use international metadata standards, data exchange protocols and agricultural vocabularies and thesauri.

• Would a brief explanation of the source/owner of institutional repository used would be useful? We will be using Agris standard

4. Develop a clearly • Are the researchers encouraged to publish their work with publishers

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Checklist Itemsdefined licensing policy for your outputs

who are either open access publishers, or who allow the author flexibility in the deposit of the work in open access repositories? As well as the publishers is very notorious and will help researchers to be cited internationally

5. Optimise the structure and the content of your web sites for search engines.

• What type of methods have been used? Not yet undertaken but we are registered in the google account and have statistics on the use of our website

6. Share your metadata by participating in international information systems

• Are the researchers encouraged to publish their work in open access journals? Not all of them

• Are the researchers encouraged to publish their work in journals which are part of collections which are freely available, or available at low cost, to researchers in developing countries e.g. AGORA, PERii, etc? WE are thinking of submitting our journal to be accessed through agora and listed in the DOAJ

• If there is not a policy in place to encourage researchers to publish in open access and other ‘high visibility’ places, why not? Who would need to be a champion for this policy for it to be implemented? Think will take time to happen. It is not easy to change attitudes and behaviour

• Are the research outputs of the organization indexed by, or included in, international databases such as AGRIS or CAB Abstracts? Yes in the CABI (Morocco was a member)

• Does the organization submit research outputs for aggregation by the major international databases? If not, why not? Who would need to champion this cause to make it happen? It used to be with AGRIS during the 80’s

7. Use 'social networking' media and applications to share your outputs.

The use of social network media for sharing research outputs in the institutions is implemented? So far, INRA registered and publish its content in Youtube, Twitter. Slideshare will also be used.

8. Build formal and informal networks to repackage your outputs.

organization has/has not skilled staff to transform scientific information into different forms which can be used by other stakeholders, or the general public. Interfacing the research results is not an easy task. Every research center is provided with R&D unit which collaborate in the repackaging process to make scientific results into ready made product

Did you have formal arrangements for repackaging research outputs through certain department? Did the arrangements among others include using TV and videos, audio and newspapers for communicating research outputs on a weekly basis in addition to using community based meetings and events to disseminate the repackaged content on a monthly basis or whenever possible. The Directorate of information and communication is in charge of that. It is the INRA spokesman and in the interface between press media and the research units

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