WLE’s blog, the Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog, has grown into a platform for discussion and networking among development professionals, academics and researchers on how we can feed a growing population without wrecking the planet. We encourage participation from our partners and organizations. Share your opinions, use the blog to spark debates and discussions, get your ideas and stories out to a wider audience! Learn more about how blogs can be used to maximize impact and how to write a great blog post.

1. Blogging for Impact:
Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog

2. Why Blog?
“A new paradigm of research communications has grown up – one that
de-emphasizes the traditional journals route, and re-prioritizes faster,
real-time academic communication in which blogs play a critical
intermediate role.
They link to research reports and articles on the one hand, and they
are linked to from Twitter, Facebook and Google+ news-streams and
communities.
So in research terms blogging is quite simply, one of the most
important things that an academic should be doing right now”
-London School of Economics Blog

3. Water Land and Ecosystem Vision:
A world in which agriculture thrives within
vibrant ecosystems, where communities have
higher incomes, improved food security and
the ability to continuously improve their lives

4. • Screen shot of WLE Blog

5. Blogs create a dialogue

6. AgEco Blog
• Discussion
• Knowledge sharing
• Partnership
engagement

7. Blog post on publication: “Scalar Disconnect”
Paper Downloads
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Downloads
Before Blog
680
After Blog

8. Why blog?

9. Testimonials
From Bloggers
3,479 people from 67 countries have visited my blog. The AgEco blog
has brought in a lot of new voices that you would not have had in IWMI
if you were just talking to yourself. The blog by Stephen Carr has had
more than 800 views in just one week!
– Aditi Mukherji, ICIMOD
“If I put my research on the Agriculture and Ecosystems blog, I am
contacted more often by people interested in my research”
- IWMI India
From a commenter:
If I were not a professor here at ISU I would come and work for you - I
just read the Ag and Ecosystems Blog you posted and went on to send
it to students in my class on Resources of Developing Countries.

10. Creating a Community
WLE
Partners
Local NGOs &
research orgs
Universities
Ministries
Journalist/
Media
Who: Writing
workshops
Field visits
Blog
Themed
Months
Thru:

11. Theme Months
• Past:
– Ecosystem Services
– Landscapes
• This year:
– Resilience (May)
– Family Farming (June)
– Rural/Urban Myths (Sept)
– RRR (Oct)
• Suggest a theme!

12. Types of Blog Posts
• Opinion pieces
• Critical
reflections/analysis
from events/fieldwork
• Reviews of recently
published journal
articles or books

13. How to write a good blog post
• 3 Main Points
• Introductory Paragraph
• Short sentences/paragraphs
• Evidence
• Limit scientific jargon
See our guidelines and tips online

16. Exercise: Intro Paragraph
• Saturday March 22nd is World Water Day
on Water and Energy
• Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
– 30% built
– Huge potential environmental/social impact
– Generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity
– Majority of Ethiopians have no access to
electricity

17. Discussion
• When you visit a blog, what information
are you looking for?
• How do you cope in areas with poor
internet connectivity?
• What do you think about creating a section
of our blog on Africa?

18. Contact Us
• Abby Waldorf, Agriculture and Ecosystems
Blog Coordinator: a.waldorf@cgiar.org