www.agraria.org

is a tool which can help to build, share, use, update and publicise an agricultural awareness system for everyone connected with the field: researchers, popular presenters, businesses, workers and consumers. The site, launched in 2000 by Marco Salvaterra*, has not only contributed to increasing interest in the subjects it covers, but has also created numerous opportunities for future ventures and new enterprises such as rivistadiagraria.org (the online magazine started in June 2005). For the most part, the site consists of a series of illustrated “compendiums”. In order to guarantee the scientific accuracy of the online information the content is selected by a small group of experts in various fields.

Another important feature is interaction with the users. Several dozen people – university research staff and lecturers in agricultural colleges – are involved with the project. The benefits of internet publication are that it’s easy to update the content and to reach international users. One of the objectives is to develop relations with producers, in particular the small farming businesses that are the true heritage of Italian agriculture, by integrating their details with the information presented on the website; this will give agricultural and agritourism businesses online visibility and enable them to come into direct contact with the thousands of users who view the site’s pages each day. The large agricultural enterprises in the Trento region (private or cooperatives) are already online, not only with websites that showcase their own products, but also through online shopping facilities.