Bringing the Farming Community Into the Internet Age: A Case Study

Despite the rapid Internet evolution in Malaysia, the farming community is not getting its full benefit due to many factors. Efforts to get the community use the Internet without the availability of proper resources and appropriate content are ineffective. TaniNet is an interactive on-line agricultural and biotechnological web site aimed at providing the agricultural community with information on the advances of planting materials and practices. The major goal of TaniNet is to get the rural farming community to use the Internet as means of accessing and sharing information and farming practices in Malaysia. In this paper we present the experience of developing and implementing TaniNet and the lessons learned.