Welcome to this special i4d issue both about and by e-agri! This issue is about e-agriculture, the broad area where ICT intersect with rural development. It is brought to you by the contributions of the e-Agriculture Community, a global community of practice united by a belief in the positive role that ICT can play in sustainable rural development and enhanced food security.

Launched in late 2007 as a follow up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the e-Agriculture Community has grown dramatically since then to its present make up today of over 6,000 members from more than 150 countries around the world. This growth has been possible only due to the support and spirit of collaboration that is found in the Community. From the international organisations that came together to launch e-Agriculture, to the newest members joining from around the world, we are proud to be part of a community that shares, challenges and collaborates in the ICT4D field.

We first met Subir and the team from CSDMS as part of the e-Agriculture delegation at the GKP conference in Malaysia in December 2007. Since then we have collaborated on many occasions, from e-Agriculture's online forums to the eAgriculture track at the annual eINDIA Conference. Now as e-Agriculture is just over two years old we are very pleased to have this opportunity to collaborate again in bringing together a wide range of experience, expertise and perspective from the e-Agriculture community to you in this issue of i4d.

Our authors have considered three key areas that the Community has been discussing over the past year: mobile technology in rural development, ICT and new ways for farmers to realise value with information, and ICT, institutions and innovation in rural development. We have nine articles to provide insight and perspective from different organisations, regions and experiences which we hope will inform, inspire and challenge. To begin, we have some fascinating overviews about the hot topic of mobile technologies in rural development. Roxanna Samii of IFAD presents the case of how the mobile phone has been the one commodity to survive the economic downturn. Then Lisa Cespedes and Franz Martin review a recent event discussing key issues around mobile telephony in Latin America and the Caribbean. This topic is rounded out by Analia Lanvin of GenARDIS on how the combination of radio and mobile phones has changed the lives of women in rural Nigeria. The second group of authors consider how ICT plays a role in adding value to the activities of farmers. First, Enrica Porcari writes about AGCommons and the CGIAR experience with location-specific intelligence for small holder farmers, followed by Francois Laureys and Denise Senmartin of IICD on farmers and rural information networks in Mali and Burkina. Then Martin Dietschi describes experience in developing information systems for small rural businesses in Bangladesh, and this theme is rounded out with Sapna Narula's article on making up information deficits with ICT. In the third group our authors look very broadly at how ICT is being leveraged for institutions and innovations. Sophie Treinen of FAO begins with an example of an e-Agriculture leading practice called VERCON (Virtual Extension and Research Communication Network). Runa Sarkar from the Indian Institute of Management shows how existing agricultural extension systems can be leveraged through a community of practice. Wrapping this all up, Harsha discusses an interesting concept on responding to "radical change" and innovation.