The MOIST group continues to work on institutionalizing new approaches to soil management that are environmentally sound. It undertakes this by creating electronic channels for moving information around the world quickly and inexpensively and by convening partner institutions to synthesize knowledge, build consensus, and scale up their successes. Details on these efforts and web addresses are given below.

MOIST sponsors a number of collaborative research and information exchange activities that link people operating in four languages in over 40 countries around topics related to soil health. Outreach activities initiated by MOIST that link various user groups include development of virtual networks/electronic discussion groups, web sites, search engines, on-line databases, consortia, publications, workshops and seminars.

Electronic networks and web-based information dissemination efforts focus on cover crops/organic inputs, with separate groups co-sponsored by MOIST in French, Spanish and English; African soil fertility, soil health and more recently the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which relies heavily on management of the soil environment. Electronic information exchange initiatives managed or co-managed by MOIST are currently being integrated under a single umbrella to take advantage of their commonalities in users and subject matter. These include:

• TropSCORE's Worldwide Soil Health Information Portal and associated databases and search engines.(http://mulch.mannlib.cornell.edu/)
• System of Rice Intensification (SRI) home page and an associated SRI-L listserv (to be completed late 2002). (http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/)
• Management of Organic Inputs in Soils of the Tropics (MOIST) home page and associated MULCH-L listserv (English). (http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/home2.html)
• Cover Crops Information and Seed Exchange Center for Africa (CIEPCA) web site (http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/CIEPCA/home.html) and its associated French language cover crops listserv (EVECS-L).
• Tropical Soil Cover and Organic Resource Exchange Consortium home page (http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/TropSCORE.html) and Trop-SCORE’s African soil health/soil fertility on-line extension material center (http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/CIEPCA/exmats/exmat.html)
• Rockefeller Soil Fertility Taskforce web site (http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/soilforce/home.html) and associated SOILFORCE-L listserv.
• Spanish language soil cover crop listserv (COBERAGRI-L), co-managed with CIDICCO in Honduras,
• Portuguese language land rehabilitation listserv (SAFS-L).

MOIST continues to take the lead in developing the TropSCORE Consortium’s Worldwide Portal to Internet-based Soil Health Information on soil cover, organic inputs, and environmentally sound soil management practices. This web-based portal is being developed in cooperation with Cornell University’s Mann Agricultural Library and numerous partners in both tropical and temperate regions of the world.

With a renewed grant from the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) to continue work on the portal through 2003, its capability will be upgraded to link practitioners, sources of information, and scientists through learning modules and through interactive features that connect from the web into electronic discussion groups conversing in English, French or Spanish. Further, an XML-based search engine that catalogues web-based information using a sophisticated system of metadata will allow users to tailor their web searches to their needs according to geography, climate, topography, and type of material.

During fall semester 2001, MOIST together with the Cornell Agroforestry Working Group (CAWG) and Plant Pathology faculty organized a new experimental course on Problem Solving in Tropical Agriculture. This course matched students with actual research problems identified by NGO partners in developing countries. It resulted in web-based learning modules on priority issues not well covered and synthesized in the literature. MOIST and CAWG also continue to jointly sponsor an interdepartmental seminar series on organic inputs and agroforestry.

During the year, papers from the managed fallows symposium held at the American Society of Agronomy meetings in November 2000 were edited for publication in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. At the field level, MOIST continues its involvement in South America through Erick Fernandes and his students who work on rehabilitation of degraded pastures in the Amazon through a research project funded by NASA under its global climate change program. In Central America MOIST continues collaborative green manure/cover crops site-specific experimentation under the direction of the International Cover Crop Clearing House (CIDICCO).

From: CIIFAD Annual Report 2001-2002, Cornell University, 35 Warren Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853
http://ciifad.cornell.edu