COUNTRY ALMANACS:   Moving GIS into the Mainstream of Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Geographic information systems (GIS) offer powerful tools for managing and analyzing spatial information to assist in agricultural development and natural resource management. Mainstream use of GIS has been hindered by high software and hardware costs, the need for specialized training, limited availability of data, and potential end-users' lack of familiarity with GIS applications. The Country Almanacs move GIS into mainstream use by providing readily accessible tools and data for characterizing and analyzing geographic variation in relation to agricultural concerns. Almanacs provide cutting-edge GIS tools for users who are not GIS specialists. Researchers, policymakers, and administrators have immediate access to GIS information at the moment they need it, directly from their desktops or laptops.

About the Almanacs

Developed at the Blackland Research and Extension Center (BREC) of the Texas A&M University System, the Almanacs provide foundation data on climate, topography, land use, human population density, and other features in a widely used format on CD-ROM.

Users can easily query and display the data, varying the choice of map symbols and colors according to their needs. The "site similarity" tool provides a particularly powerful mechanism for identifying regions with characteristics similar to a specific site. Any subset of data can be exported as tables or graphs or in a standard GIS format.

Almanac users can either load their own data into existing Almanacs or create new Almanacs from scratch. In this way, Almanacs serve to disseminate spatial data and at the same time to safeguard the data and other important information that form the institutional memory of a research organization.

The software shell has additional non-GIS tools such as a database query for crop trial results and a digital document library. The shell provides a framework for researchers to assemble a "tool kit" of agricultural software, in which individual tools including crop models, impact assessment tools, or databases can be managed easily from a standardized user interface.

Almanacs are available for many countries and more will be available soon (see table). Almanacs for developing countries are distributed at no charge.

Two-day training workshops enable potential users to dominate the basic functions of the Almanacs. Participants in the workshops give the design team invaluable feedback on tools and data needs, ensuring a close match between users' requirements and software development priorities. As an increasing number of partners have collaborated in developing the Almanacs, the utility of the software has increased.

Who Uses the Almanacs, and Why?

Users come from a broad range of disciplines and management areas in national and international research centers, universities, private companies, and non-governmental organizations. They include genetic resource specialists, breeders, agronomists, livestock specialists, research policy advisors, and research managers. It is particularly encouraging to see widespread use among CGIAR Centers, including CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRISAT, ILRI, and IPGRI.

Examples of Almanac applications include:

• Delimiting major wheat production regions of Ethiopia (Box 1).

• Characterizing climatic conditions for maize production in the Mid-Hills of Nepal.

• Assisting site selection for research with small-scale maize farmers in Zimbabwe (Box 2).

• Identifying regions of Ethiopia prone to waterlogging.

• Planning marketing strategies in Zimbabwe for a private seed company's new groundnut varieties.

• Examining and reproducing results of a major GIS-crop simulation exercise that assessed the potential of conservation tillage in Jalisco, Mexico.

• Facilitating collection of district-level crop and livestock production data in Kenya by showing potential data providers how their data will be used.

• Training researchers in the potential uses of GIS.

Opinions of the utility and accessibility of the Almanacs are overwhelmingly favorable (Box 3).

Almanac Support and Information

The Country Almanacs include an extensive on-line help. BREC provides e-mail-based support and maintains a website for posting new datasets and utilities (http://www.brc.tamus/char/). Tutorials are available for specific countries.

To date, in-country training has largely been organized through CIMMYT in collaboration with regional networks, national research services, and other international research centers. The Almanac team is exploring options for developing further in-country training and support capacity based in national agricultural research programs or universities.

Future Plans

Demand for the Almanacs is growing rapidly as potential users learn about their practicality, accessibility, and relevance. The development team actively seeks new partners and support, both within countries and across regions, to meet this demand. Partners should provide local leadership in training and maintaining data sets. They are welcome to participate in developing the software, according to their needs and capacities. To date, the Almanac development team has focused on assembling country-level data, but the team hopes to give greater emphasis to higher resolution data, which holds great promise for increasing farm-level impact.

 

Box 1. Almanacs at Work: An Agroclimatological Characterization of Wheat Production Regions of Ethiopia Ethiopia's current annual wheat production of approximately 1.3 million tons is insufficient to meet domestic needs, and the country imports as much as 50% of its wheat requirement. The national research organization, EARO, was interested in identifying new areas where wheat could be grown. The Ethiopia Country Almanac was used to analyze climatic data related to current and potential wheat production areas. Based on consultations with Ethiopian wheat scientists and examination of a published map approximating the geographic distribution of wheat production (Belay Simane et al. 1999), traditional rainfed wheat production areas were best described as those receiving 350 mm or more precipitation and having mean minimum temperatures of 6-11C during the wettest quarter (the green areas in the map). When the minimum temperature range was extended to 13C (orange areas), the potential wheat growing area almost doubled, emphasizing the importance of growing season temperature in limiting the current wheat area. By developing wheat varieties or agronomic practices suited to a higher temperature range, the research system might make wheat production an option for more farmers. _________________________ Belay Simane, D.G. Tanner, Amsal Tarekegene, and Asefa Taa. 1999. Agro-ecological decision support systems for wheat improvement in Ethiopia: Climatic characteristics and clustering of wheat growing regions. African Crop Science Journal 7: 9-19. Wheat production areas of Ethiopia identified by climatic analysis (green areas), compared to a widely used map based on expert opinion (polygons). Potential wheat expansion locations in warmer areas are shown in orange.

Box 2. Almanacs at Work: Selecting Sites for Farmer Participatory Research in Zimbabwe CIMMYT is investigating the strategies that Zimbabwe's smallholder maize farmers use to deal with climatic risk. This participatory research project (funded by ACIAR) complements broader activities of SoilFertNet, which develops practical methods for smallholders to maintain or improve soil fertility in their cropping systems. To guide the selection of locations for farmer participatory research, the Zimbabwe Almanac was used to compare the relative "areas of influence" or similarity of prospective research sites based on climate and population variables. Regions were considered similar to the proposed site at Makaholi, for example, if precipitation, evapotranspiration, and maximum and minimum temperatures in the rainy season (five wettest months) were within 10% of conditions at Makaholi (the shaded areas on the map). Population density was a further criterion for site selection (Deichmann 1997). When human population density was interpolated from 1990 estimates for the areas that were similar to Makaholi, total population within the areas was approximately 1.6 million people, which more than justified the selection of Makaholi as a site for the participatory research. _________________________ Deichmann, U. 1997. Population Density for Africa in 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990. 3rd edition. NCGIA, UCSB. http://grid.cr.usgs.clearinghouse/datalist.html Site similarity analysis for potential participatory research sites in Zimbabwe.

Box 3. Positive Feedback from Potential Almanac Users Almanac users report a high level of satisfaction with the software and data. For example, a two-day workshop was recently held in Kathmandu, Nepal to present the Nepal Almanac to 25 agronomists linked to an SDC-funded project to improve maize production in the Mid-Hills. A brief evaluation at the end of the workshop elicited extremely positive responses. Participants in workshops in Kenya and Zimbabwe showed similar levels of enthusiasm.

For More Information:

John D. Corbett, Blackland Research and Extension Center (BREC), Texas A&M University System (corbett@brc.tamus.edu) and David Hodson, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) (d.hodson@cgiar.org). Internet: www.brc.tamus.edu/char

The Almanac Development Team:

BREC in Temple, Texas, leads development of the Country Almanacs. CIMMYT assists in creating Almanac datasets and has played a major role in promoting use of the Almanacs in developing countries. Other international centers and research institutes have assisted by supplying data and providing training facilities. For example, ICARDA recently financed and provided data for the Syria Almanac, and CIAT provided climate data for the Nepal Almanac. The current development team is John D. Corbett, Stewart N. Collis, Beau R. Bush, Eric I. Muchugu, Randy Q. Jeske, Robyn A. Burton, and Roy E. Martinez (all of BREC), and David P. Hodson (of CIMMYT).

Acronyms and Abbreviations:

 

Status of Country Almanacs, October 2000
Region/agency		Status1	Funding	Comments
Africa
	Africa	Completed	USAID	Partially based on Africa Maize Research Atlas data
	Angola	Being upgraded	USAID	-
	Botswana	In preparation	USAID	-
	Ethiopia	completed	USAID	-
	Ghana	In preparation	USAID	-
	Kenya	Completed	USAID	-
	Liberia	Being upgraded	USAID	-
	Madagascar	In preparation	CIRAD core funds	First version in French
	Malawi	In preparation	USAID	-
	Mali	Completed	Global Livestock CRSP	-
	Mozambique	In preparation	USAID	-
	Sierra Leone	Being upgraded	USAID	-
	Tanzania	Completed	USAID	-
	Uganda	Completed	USAID	-
	Zambia	Being upgraded	USAID	-
	Zimbabwe	Completed	USAID	-
Latin America
	Ecuador	Proposed	PROMSA	Proposal submitted with Ecuadorian NGO
	Honduras	In preparation	CIMMYT	Prototype
	Mexico (Guanajuato)	In preparation	FIRA	Prototype
	Mexico (Jalisco)	In preparation	CIMMYT	Prototype
	Mexico (Mixteca Region)	In preparation	Hilton, Ford, and Eiselen Foundations	-
	Panama	Proposed	-	Proposal submitted by CIP
	Venezuela	Proposed	-	Proposal in preparation
Asia
	Bangladesh	Proposed	-	With BARC, BRRI, and SRDI
	Indonesia	Proposed	-	Joint COGENT, FAO, and BREC
	Members of RWC	Proposed	ADB	Base data plus characterizations of key research sites
	Nepal	Completed	SDC	For the Nepal Hill Maize Research project
	Nepal (Rupandehi)	Completed	RWC	District-level data from NARC Soils Laboratory
	Syria	Completed	ICARDA	-
	Thailand	Proposed	-	Joint COGENT, FAO, and BREC
	Turkmenistan	In preparation	Global Livestock CRSP	Through University of California, Davis
	Uzbekistan	In preparation	Global Livestock CRSP	Through University of California, Davis
	Vietnam	Proposed	-	Joint COGENT, FAO, and BREC
Other
	Texas	Completed	State of Texas	Commercial (US$ 100) via BREC
1	Being upgraded = old version to be re-released in March 2001 with version 3.0 Almanac Characterization Tool. Completed = available with version 2.04 of Almanac Characterization Tool. In preparation = to be released in March 2001 with version 3.0 Almanac Characterization Tool.
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