Australian High Commission
Honiara
Solomon Islands

Assisting the Agriculture Research Department with Information

5 December 2014

Assisting the Agriculture Research Department with Information

Vallona Baker works as a volunteer Research Information Management Adviser at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock’s Research department.

‘Currently I spend most of my time working on a database, so it involves mostly sitting at the computer. The database I am working on is a bibliographic database of agricultural information, and this database will be used to provide information that research officers require to carry out their work’ she says.

‘They will have access to information that will allow them to know what sort of work has been carried out in the past both here and elsewhere and what sort of research is currently being done and hopefully that will inform them in designing and developing their own research projects.’

Vallona, who comes from Townsville, is a Marine Biologist by profession. Before coming to the Solomon Islands, she worked at the Australian Institute for Marine Science in Townsville where she documented data collected by scientists.

She has also volunteered in Papua New Guinea at the National Fisheries Authority for 7 years where she oversaw licensing and information.

She joined the Agriculture Research Department a year ago, under the Australian Government’s funded Australian Volunteer International and enjoys working with the team.

‘I work with very nice people, I enjoy working with them and I am hoping that what I am doing will be really useful to them. I am upgrading the database and looking forward to teaching them how to use it to help them out with their research.’

‘I enjoy the idea of providing people with information that will help them do their work, it’s an enabling process and I like to make the information as correct and available as possible.’

‘And because of my marine biology background, I am actually learning a lot about agriculture and how important it is to the Solomon Islands, especially about family farming, learning about local crops and the culture.’

The Director of the Research Department working with Vallona, Hellen Tsatsia also agrees that they are learning a lot and benefitting from the work that is being done by Vallona.

‘Vallona has assisted us in building up the Research Department’s database of information we have on Solomon Islands and neighbouring pacific island countries.’

‘We are learning that information is a very important part of our work and we need to have a place where we can have access to information both electronically and printed materials.’

‘The Research Department used to have a library at the Dodo Creek Research Station which was lost during the ethnic tension. Since then, we had no access to any information.’

Through Vallona’s hard work of setting up the database and the library at Centre, the Research Department can now access information to assist them in their work.

“I want to acknowledge the Australian Government’s assistance through AVI, Vallona joined us at a time when we needed her assistance the most and we look forward to learning more from her on how to use the database, and how to get information of the internet for our research work.’

Vallona’s stint with the Research Department is for another year. There are approximately 60 Australian Volunteers who work in the country every year in a variety of fields from medical, to legal, the media and education.