Jointly organized by the Consortium for Spatial Information (CSI) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), HarvestChoice, and the Agricultural Geospatial Commons (AGCommons) Program, the event builds on the success of last year’s meeting. However, AAGW 2010 has a broader scope and will be presented as a “GIS ShareFair”, complete with a market place that will include exhibitors, training sessions, thematic workshops, presentation sessions, CGIAR Spatial Science Sessions, the third gathering of WhereCampAfrica, and the unveiling of the AGCommons service bureau.

Call for Presentations

AAGW 2010 would like to invite you to participate in this unique gathering by giving you an opportunity to make a presentation using one of several different formats. For example, you can share your GIS experiences during a lively, facilitated session; disseminate your GIS information using posters, brochures, booklets etc. at one of our exhibition stands;  make a poster or video presentation or take advantage of the “show me your where” space … Click here for more information on the different formats available and how you can make your submission.

Prizes

A small financial prize will be awarded to the best presentation in the following categories:

1. First time presenters (including students and young professionals)

2. Most innovative idea

3. Most innovative medium for presentation delivery

4. Overall best

Dates

Call for presentations closes on April 12, 2010

AAGW 2010 will take place on June 8-12, 2010 at ILRI Campus in Nairobi, Kenya

For further information and updates, please visit: http://AfricaAgricultureGISWeek.org

Map of climate similarity to the Maroua, Cameron trial site, based on the Homologue™ model. The areas in red are the most similar in terms of rainfall, temperature and seasonal weather pattern.

While Asia and Latin America have benefitted from the Green Revolution, agricultural yields in Africa have increased little over the last half century.  This gap is due, in part, to the current state of African research systems. Improved systems will lead to increased yields, a solution that African governments and donors already recognize. Towards this end, several agricultural research scientists associated with the CGIAR’s Consortium for Spatial Information (CSI) established the Africa Trial Sites (AfricaTS) project, a far-reaching initiative that supports the development of international networks of researchers willing to share the results of their cultivar trial experiments.

In a recent interview, the ICT-KM Program caught up with three researchers behind this AGCommons Quick-Win project: Glenn Hyman (CIAT), Kai Sonder (CIMMYT – previously with IITA) and Sibiry Traore (ICRISAT).

What were the main goals of AfricaTS and what were the outputs?

Glenn Hyman: AfricaTS set out to develop a network of trial sites in Africa that could participate in crop improvement programs.  The project aims to manage information related to trial sites in a standardized way, and also hopes to have research organizations pooling information on trial sites and making it available to the crop improvement community in a way that would promote a more efficient evaluation of improved varieties. Project participants identified trial sites in Africa and basic information about these sites.  Tools to make this information more accessible to the crop improvement community were developed and a website was established to share information developed in the project.  The website includes results of some spatial analyses, tools for analyzing data, and links to existing resources for the crop improvement community.

Can other organizations outside the CGIAR access information on the website?

Glenn Hyman: Absolutely!  It’s about international public goods, something we need to develop more. It often happens in the CGIAR that we get paid to do research that ends up sitting on our own hard drives or on our own bookshelves. This project is about getting results out there for the public to use.

Why did the four Centers, CIAT, CIMMYT, IITA and ICRISAT, get involved in this project?

Glenn Hyman: Mostly because they are the main Centers working on crop improvement in Africa. It was partly opportunistic as well, because a couple of us sat around talking about the idea, then we sent out a note to everyone else. And these four were the ones that shared the strongest interest. One possibility for a second phase of the project could involve other Centers taking it over and starting to put their own sites in. For example, the best candidate to join efforts now is probably the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), because they are doing so much work in West Africa. But there are other Centers, such as CIP, which does a lot of trial work in Africa on sweet potatoes.

Why did you personally come on board?

Kai Sonder: I simply thought it was a great idea. The compilation of the African trial sites with lots of interactive information is a very valuable thing to have available for the whole agricultural research, development and extension community interested in Africa. It allows us to put research results, and not just research results on plant improvement, in a wider geographical context for up-scaling, improved applicability of results, etc. For example, a person from a NARS or NGO in any country in Sub-Saharan Africa can use one or several of the tools on the AfricaTS site and find out about existing research that was done in a place that is similar to their intended area of work. They can then contact a breeder or other person involved to get seeds or planting materials or implement results.  The site will hopefully help connect researchers with similar interests working in similar areas and allow them to exchange results, data, seeds, etc. If properly used, the site will reduce redundancies of testing varieties and breeds and the time it takes to get new improved varieties to farmers in larger areas.  Political and economic communities like ECOWAS are thinking of streamlining their seed improvement and delivery systems and sharing information on evaluation sites. Having access to a common platform will contribute to that goal.

Are you still actively involved with the project?

Glenn Hyman: We would like to get new support for it in the future. The Centers involved plan to present the project at the next CSI meeting, which will take place in Kenya, in June 2010. Between now and then, we will be doing a lot of networking and some tweaking of the website. We’ve also had some interest from colleagues who want us to write proposals related to this. The CGIAR is starting a huge climate change initiative, and a big part of that involves trying to make sure that we have seeds that are adapted to future climates. We plan to write a proposal that will involve cultivar trials for future conditions at different sites today. That’s where we think this network is going to be really useful for future research.

What about the sustainability of Africa Trial Sites work?

Glenn Hyman: A large number of our trial sites are from projects of the Generation Challenge Program. Some others are part of the Tropical Legumes Project, and yet others from the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project.  These are all ongoing projects that have work out in the field, and which need the type of data and information that are part of this network. We also expect the network to be useful for future projects and multi-location trials.

Are you involved in networking and social media aspects in the run up to the CSI meeting? What do you hope to see as an outcome of the meeting?

Kai Sonder: I will certainly try to contribute to spreading the word on the meeting and getting local colleagues involved. Unfortunately, I’m now based in Mexico and the geographical and time distance doesn’t make it easy to arrange for things.

The meeting’s main purpose is to meet friends and colleagues within the CGIAR GIS community. So it’s a bit like an annual class reunion and it strengthens our personal relations. The big strength of the CSI is that it’s a very informal network that works very well because of our common interests and the social ties.  It’s a very level community and we share a lot on data, software and information. I always learn about new data and techniques and a lot of joint projects have come out of the contacts made.  It would also be nice to get a larger project going that would include the whole CSI group, such as the Agricultural Atlas for Africa.

People of related disciplines from the UN, NGOs and other institutions often participate, depending on the location and interest , so it’s always a good opportunity to network and get a new range of partners and clients. Last year, this was already quite fruitful in combination with the WhereCamp Nairobi, as I met a lot of people from different sectors and learned a lot of new things on technologies and applications beyond our normal agricultural development scope. This year, as the CSI meeting is imbedded in the Africa Agriculture Geospatial Week (AAGW), I look forward to even more exciting new encounters, partnerships and impulses for my work.

Did you face any challenges with AfricaTS that you didn’t anticipate at the outset?

Glenn Hyman: We expected a lot of historical data on trials to be in a lot better shape than it was. This was partly due to communication in the past. Some of the trial projects were started 25 or 30 years ago. Today, the Internet has made a big difference. Instead of sending trial results out by regular mail, people can get them out by email and through websites like ours. This reduces errors and the time it takes to send things. One thing that is really exciting about AfricaTS is the recent changes expected in Africa related to Internet connection and cell phones. Internet connections will be improved by new undersea cables, probably within a year. This will make a lot more people in Africa connected, and we will soon be able get the Africa crop improvement, research and development community linked to this project.

Sibiry Traore: Historically, low adoption rates of research germplasm have resulted (inter alia) from inadequate knowledge and sampling of target environments. This was also due to important communication gaps between disciplines, e.g. between breeding and ecology (including human ecology). However, AfricaTS offers a unique opportunity to deploy genes across multiple environments more efficiently by breaking through these knowledge and communication gaps.

Would you have done anything differently?

Kai Sonder: The time frame was tight for a small project and the web design part took too long. So in hindsight, these things should have been set up more at the beginning or parallel to the compilation of sites to have the web platform ready as early as possible. This would also have allowed us to share it with parts of the intended client community early on to get feedback and the word out sooner. If this gets expanded to other crops and geographical areas it will be easier.

What I found very useful was using a single site for sharing project documents online for editing and other work. This prevented endless emails with updates and revised versions and the related problems. For me, this was the first project fully managed by Skype and a Google site. So that was quite an exciting experience using new technologies with three partners in four countries and several continents.

Looking ahead what do you hope to see happening?

Sibiry Traore: AfricaTS should be viewed as a springboard for a much larger concept. Beyond the “ivory tower”, ON-STATION trial networks where growing environments are well controlled, it will set the stage for 21st century multi-local on-farm trials where growing environments are less well controlled, but where farmer implication is far more direct. In that sense, AfricaTS lays the ground for truly multi-local PARTICIPATORY trial networks of the future – which will also be more flexible and affordable.

Dr. Omari Mponda (center) of Naliendele Agricultural Research Institute in Mtwara, Tanzania explains site selection of a new well to irrigate the research station. The tree in the background is a botanical indicator of access to water, one of many clues supporting a geological analysis of groundwater. Dr. Mponda participates in collaborative research of the Generation Challenge Program (GCP).

Irrigation at cultivar trial sites

Irrigated trial sites provide many benefits over those that solely depend on natural rainfall. They allow the researcher to conduct trials in the dry season. For some crops and areas a third season may even be possible. With the irrigation water the researcher can closely control the amount of water applied to the trial. These benefits accelerate the breeding cycle and improve the efficiency of cultivar development.

But many trial sites lack irrigation, which may not have been considered at the outset. The site may be far from a reliable water source. The site may not have access to electricity that could be important for the pumps that move water. Many sites may simply lack the funding needed to develop irrigation.

Development of irrigation would seem to be a smart investment in crop improvement, shortening the time from initial development of a variety all the way to the cultivar’s release to farmers.

How many trial sites have irrigation? Could more be done?

SIBWA’s In Silico phase adapted the very same processing technique employed in medical imaging for blood counting to the enumeration of trees across West African agricultural landscapes. So let the laboratory results speak for themselves:

Now, if estimating tree densities yields similar performance levels regardless of whether you measure it on the ground, you digitize it manually on-screen, or run an automated object extraction procedure, what direction will you choose?

You’re right: the fastest. Because there is more to this. Maintaining and enhancing the natural regeneration of shrubs and trees in farmer fields has numerous benefits for the resource base and for animal and human nutrition. Granted. We all know that (well, hopefully we do). But, monitoring this process efficiently has the potential to effectively unlock new opportunities for smallholders. Like, ecosystem services.

CARBON MARKETS. Incentives that could trigger a virtuous cycle. An intensification cycle. So let’s cut this loose. Let’s shortcut the dreaded “research-development continuum” hydra and its multiple aneurysms. Just bump in a SATELLITE ALLOMETRY bypass. With community-friendly Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems on top of that. Turn-key. Shoot the whole thing back to the voluntary carbon markets. And multiply the profits. NOW.

1. FAN= Fansirakoro, Mali; NOB= Nobere, B. Faso; PIS= Pisii, Ghana; SER= Serkin Hawsa, Niger; SUK= Sukumba, Mali; TEG= Tegena, Mali

Download PDF version: 200910XX_SIBWA_InSilico_growingstrongroots_PCST_V05

La phase In Silico de SIBWA a adapté les mêmes techniques employées en imagerie médicale pour le comptage des leucocytes à l’énumération des arbres en paysages agricoles ouest-Africains. Les résultats d’analyse sont édifiants:

Maintenant, à performance d’estimation des densités de ligneux comparable, que vous les mesuriez sur le terrain, les numérisiez à l’écran, ou qu’un clic de souris les extraie pour vous, comme par magie… vous choisissez quoi?

Bonne réponse: le plus rapide. Car… chut! la caverne d’Ali Baba est au tournant. La régénération naturelle des arbres en champs paysans comporte de nombreux bénéfices pour les ressources locales, la nutrition animale et humaine. Accordé. On le sait déjà (bon, espérons-le). Mais un suivi efficace et efficient de ces pratiques a le potentiel, en plus, de libérer de nouvelles opportunités pour les petits producteurs.

Comme, des services environnementaux. L’ACCES AUX MARCHES DU CARBONE. Une incitation qui pourrait déclencher un cercle vertueux. Un cycle d’intensification. Alors on fait quoi? On tranche le cordon ombilical. On court-circuite l’hydre du “continuum recherche-développement” et ses multiples anévrismes. On appose un bypass par l’ALLOMETRIE SATELLITAIRE. Avec des systèmes de suivi, d’évaluation et de vérification (SEV) conviviaux pour les communautés à la clé. Clé-en-main. On re-bombarde le tout vers les marchés volontaires du carbone. Et on multiplie les profits. MAINTENANT.

Télécharger le fichier PDF: 200910XX_SIBWA_InSilico_growingstrongroots_PCST_V05_Fr

Dr Hannibal Muhtar and Tanzanian groundnut breeder Dr. Omari Mponda

Naliendele means “eat when you are sleeping” in the local language of Southeast Tanzania. It is also the name of the community where you can find the Naliendele Agricultural Research Institute. According to local legend, a man had been traveling over long distances when he arrived to this community. He was very tired from his long journey. The people of the community gave him food and a place to sleep. The next day the man could not remember if he had eaten any food the previous day. He had been so tired from his journey that he could not remember. The people of the community said he ate while he was sleeping.

Naliendele ARI is an important site for research on cashew nut, groundnut, sesame, cassava and other crops.

Dr. Hannibal Muhtar (center) of AGRICON International Inc. advises Dr. Samuel Gudu (right), the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development of Moi University. They are considering how to design an irrigation system for a proposed agronomic trial site in Sega Western Kenya. Agricultural scientist Onkware Augustino (left) looks on.

As with any other endeavor, establishing an agronomic trial site requires substantial preparation. Planners must consider the homogeneity of fields with respect to soil and topographic conditions, fencing and security to protect the site from animals and intruders and how water can be accessed to provide irrigation.

Is there a weather station that will provide sufficient data to characterize the trials? Are there any pest and weed problems that could make carrying out experiments difficult? These are only a few of the considerations that must be taken into account.

Researchers with expertise in spatial analysis from CIAT, CIMMYT, IITA and ICRISAT are working with the Generation Challenge Program (GCP) and others to evaluate new and existing cultivar trial sites. Our role is to analyze the location of the sites in the overall context of the GCP’s molecular breeding platform and other crop improvement programs.

A key consideration is to develop a network of sites that allows researchers to test their cultivars in the broad range of environments. We don’t want too many sites that are similar, to avoid duplication of effort. On the other hand, we want enough sites that are similar to be able to confirm the environmental response of a genotype. These are all considerations that must be taking into account in targeting genotypes to their environmental niche.

In future posts we will discuss our field visits with the GCP team to existing or potential trial sites.

The  International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) saved throusands of villagers  from incurring heaving losses when natural calamities strike and help prevent migration to cities.

In partnerhsip with a women’s self helf group Adarsha Mahila Samaikhya (AMS), ICRISAT shares techniques with rural communities that reveal how vulnerable their villages would be to drought and has launched a drought preparedness programme in the Indian distric of Andhra Pradesh.

As part of ICRISAT’s drought-preparedness program, surface water found in tanks, ponds, lakes and streams is measured using data and images available with the US Geological Survey that utilizes the Landsat remote sensing imagery.

Also, with the help of on-site surveys, accumulation of silt and weeds in water bodies are examined along with the encroachment on reservoir beds. Field surveys are then combined with animal and human population data to calculate the water needs of humans, livestock and fields in each of the 21 villages. The gap between water requirement and availability is carefully estimated.

With state government support at the initial stage, ICRISAT set up an information hub with some computers and cell phone-based internet connection, to support a two-way data flow:

- using GIS technology, color-coded maps with weather predictions are compiled and distributed through AMS volunteers and village knowledge centers,which have been established and equipped with computers and internet services.

- The volunteers measure rainfall using a rain gauge, and regularly upload the data on a website maintained by ICRISAT at www.vasat.icrisat.org. The near-real time data is used to adjust the forecast of drought severity.

Twice a week, research scholars at ICRISAT link up with interested farmers through live two-way video chats. During drought this year, the video conferencing facility, which was provided by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), helped agricultural researchers and scientists suggest alternative crops and vegetables that require less water – castor, pigeonpea, green leafy vegetables like spinach and amaranth, tomatoes etc.

“Sharing the right information with poor dryland farmers at the right time can help them overcome the effects of drought,” – Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT.

Source: http://www.icrisat.org/newsroom/news-releases/icrisat-pr-2010-media2.htm

ICRISAT is implementing “Seeing is Believing West Africa” (SIBWA), one of the AGCommons QuickWin projects. SIBWA  aims to demonstrate the value of very high resolution imagery to help scale up a few quick-win productivity enhancement technologies in 10 smallholder communities across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger. Read here the posts from Pierre Sibiry Traore, the project leader.

Fruit of a collaboration between Collective Action, the ICT-KM Program, CGIAR centres and over 250 scientists who have contributed their research information, the newly released map provides a geographical overview of where projects are carried out and gives users the unique opportunity to execute a more specific and targeted query based on different key fields, link the data to project outputs and other relevant documents while keeping the ownership over the information in the hands of the project managers themselves.

“A place to compile and disseminate outputs and outcomes of the CGIAR as well as share knowledge and information. The research map provides just a unique tool for this!” - Evelyn Katingi, Collective Action.

Source:  http://ictkm.cgiar.org/2010/02/09/show-me-the-goods-the-research-map-is-out/

Although there are also some people who just drift into a career, without even knowing why, Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) expert Laban MacOpiyo is no such person. Ask him why he decided to get involved in GIS, and he will instantly take you back to his childhood primary school in his native Kenya. For it was there, at the age of 11, that he discovered an aptitude and a passion for geography. More pertinently, even at such a young age, he felt strongly that geography was something he would like to incorporate into a career later in life.

About 10 years later, Laban graduated from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geography, which was closely followed by his Master of Science in 2000. While he was studying for his Masters, he was introduced to GIS technology by his mentor at that time, Dr. John Corbett from the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (now World Agroforestry Center), and his interest was instantly piqued.

Ask Laban why he applied for the position of AGCommons Director, and he is equally as clear in his response: “Since that early introduction, I’ve been drawn to working with geospatial information and how it can be applied to agriculture,” he says.

Indeed, after obtaining his Masters, Laban applied his knowledge and enthusiasm to a number of projects and organizations. One such endeavour with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) involved trials to control the Maize Stem Borer, a crop pest that devastates maize crops across Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We collected geospatial information on those areas where these pests occurred, so we could control their spread,” Laban explains. “Then we introduced a biological control, a “pest of the pest” that devours the Maize Stem Borers, into the same locations. This was very successful and especially satisfying, because it demonstrated powerfully how scientific innovations can directly benefit farmers and other individuals at the grass roots level.”

This enterprising scientist also worked with GIS to great effect in an area of Mount Kenya. The Laikipia Research Programme (presently CETRAD), a Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) supported initiative, brought home valuable solutions to address the landuse change patterns in the Laikipia plateau and resolve potential conflict situations among highland-lowland water users along the upper Ewaso N’giro river catchment.

Laban explains: “Prior to implementing GIS in that area, there was an ongoing tension over the use of water resources. However, by using GIS as a landuse planning tool in combination with community mobilization, we managed to bring an understanding about equitable and fair use, simply by providing evidence in the form of the geospatial data and maps and sharing the information with the various communities. We were able to show how everyone could benefit from the water by making sure that the agricultural upstream users took no more water than would impede downstream supply, thereby allowing some of the water to flow downstream to the pastoral communities. This resulted in peaceful co-existense in the area.”

Over the last 15 years, Laban has followed his passion and has worked as a GIS expert and project leader with several major initiatives throughout Africa and beyond. Looking ahead, he strongly believes in the power of knowledge to effect change.

“If we want to make changes to the world we live in today,” he says, “we need more knowledge to be able to take a leadership position.”

Actions usually speak louder than words, and Laban won several scholarships, among them the SDC Meritorious Award for Best Student in Geography (which subsequently funded his Master’s programme) and a Ph.D. fellowship award from the USAID to develop a pastoral risk management tool that tracks the mobility of pastoral people in the Greater Horn of Africa.

“Pastoral communities move from place to place in search of pasture for their animals, so what we did was create a model that mimics or imitates the movement of these people,” says Laban, by way of explanation. “Pastoral movement is an adaptive livelihood strategy based on the exploitation of spatially distinct areas of vegetation types and productivity by moving species-specific livestock such as camels, cattle, donkeys, sheep and goats across the landscape. The aim of creating such a model was to track down resources and their exploitation on the ground, and advise pastoralists when it would be prudent to relocate and to where, and also give them advice on when to sell off some of their livestock during periods when forage resources are projected to become insufficient. During the 2002 drought, our warnings were taken up by the Pastoral Livelihoods Program of the USAID, which incorporated them into its contingency planning, something that was a highpoint in our work.

“This sort of work fits in nicely with the objectives of AGCommons. It’s not just about research, with the results of that research sitting on a shelf. It’s about applying the knowledge at the grass roots level.”

Laban was also one of the first recipients of the GLCRSP’s Jim Ellis grant in honour of the late Jim Ellis, who was one the first researchers on Africa pastoralism in East Africa. A  member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Laban also became the Vice-President of the Africa Student Association, Texas A&M University chapter, and due to his demonstrated outstanding achievement, he was nominated and subsequently inducted into the Who’s Who in America of 2006.

Shortly after Laban obtained his Ph.D. in Range Ecology and Management from the Texas A&M University in 2005, he was involved in a Livestock Early Warning Project that showcased how geospatial information could benefit pastoral communities on the ground by monitoring and disseminating crucial spatially explicit forage and livestock market information.

“We established a robust livestock market information system that provided accurate and timely information on prices and volume of livestock marketed within select important markets in East Africa,” he says. “Livestock market information was collected and transmitted in real time using text messages sent via mobile phones, and relayed in coded form to a local server, where it was decoded and published on the Web. Location-specific market information from multiple areas was also simultaneously uploaded and published, thereby enabling farmers to make an informed decision about the best markets in which to sell their livestock.”

Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the project came to an end when the funding cycle came to an end. However, Laban feels that a service bureau, such as the one he is spearheading for AGCommons, will be in a position to provide farmers and intermediaries with vital geospatial information on an on-going basis.

Laban talks enthusiastically about the future of the AGCommons Service Bureau.

“Right now the aim is to recruit as much useful information as possible for use by our target groups. The infrastructure is in place and has been tested. The service will be up and running in three months. I see the Bureau as a client base that will grow rapidly. I see new projects being recruited to come on board, gather more data, develop applications as services, and provide more useful information and innovative applications”

Almost three decades after saying goodbye to his primary school, Laban feels he has realized much by taking the reins of this new initiative.

“I’m absolutely excited about the prospects,” he says. “This is like attaining my dream. You grow up wanting to work in a particular line, and in my profession, this is where anyone involved with GIS would want to be.”