Information Sharing: The Missing Ingredient in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of Pakistan-Agriculture Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the important role of information sharing in advancing innovation that is presently missing in National Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy of Pakistan approved in 2012. Information is a key resource for making innovations in science, technology and policies. Like other countries of the world, almost all government departments in Pakistan continuously collect informationaccording to their mandated responsibility. The ultimate objective of this information collection activity is to benefit it for making decisions. But sound decisions require information that has been evaluated and synthesized persuasively. Information that is developed or accumulated from multiple sources and is objective, reliable, accessible and usable. Then this information is benefited for decision-making in thrust areas such as metrology, environment, health, energy, biotechnology, agriculture, water, minerals and ocean resources. We take the example of agriculture mentioned as one of the thrust areas in the National STI Policyof Pakistan and investigate which types of information is necessary for making innovation agricultural policy. The paper concludes that a single department cannot collect every type of information required to make innovations in technologies and policies. Therefore, information collected by various government departments needs to be shared and integrated at the national level to better understand the local context ofPakistan.