Click on “Accessible GIS for Africa”

A geographic information system (GIS) for agriculture is being used in myriad ways throughout the developing world—especially Africa—to benefit the rural poor.

GIS’ Power Opens Eyes

A GIS can pull together information of a hundred types—topography, weather,  land use, soil type, research sites, and actual data from experiments conducted at those sites, to name a few examples. Prior to the ACT, running a GIS required high-powered software and hardware, often beyond the reach of users in developing countries.

For researchers who have never worked with a GIS, the ACT is an eye-opener, according to Hodson: “In addition to working with the installed maps and data, users can upload their own data, manipulate and combine datasets, and create customized,  exportable maps, tables, and figures, to mention a few features.”

Early in 2001, the ACT team surveyed users to document the product’s varied applications, as well as identify possible shortcomings of tools or data. Though not exhaustive, the compilation revealed an extremely wide range of users, including researchers from CGIAR centers, *private seed companies, and non-governmental organizations. “Applications are varied, but they address two broad questions all agricultural researchers must answer,” Hodson says. “First, how do you know you’re working in the right place for the right farmers? Second, how can you share a useful practice or product developed at one site with farmers at many other, similar locations?”

For Geoff Hildebrand at the Rattray Arnold Research Station, Seed Co Ltd.,  Zimbabwe, the answers are central to developing and marketing new groundnut varieties. “Groundnut is an important food crop in southern Africa.  Much is grown under marginal climatic conditions,” he says. “A major constraint is the short rainy season. Until recently, the only cultivars available matured in 105–130 days. But the average rainy season in some parts seldom exceeds 80–90 days, resulting in reduced yields, difficult harvesting, and increased risk of aflatoxin contamination. Development of shorter-duration cultivars is critical.” Hildebrand and his colleagues used the ACT to define short rainy season areas, conduct climate similarity studies for a key testing site, and produce recommendation maps for the use of Nyanda, a new Seed Co short-season groundnut cultivar (see figure).

Other uses of the ACT have included:

• development, dissemination, and impact assessment of agroforestry technologies in five African countries;

• detailed characterization of wheat production areas in Ethiopia;

• designing sampling strategies for agricultural surveys in Mexico;

• grouping mid-hill maize production regions in Nepal into research domains based on climate;

• increasing the cost-effectiveness of farmer participatory verification trials in several countries of southern Africa; and

• choosing locations for testing maize hybrids and targeting them to production environments in Zimbabwe. 
  

Looking Ahead

The ACT software is fast approaching the full set of geographic tools envisaged by its designers, according to Jeff White, head of CIMMYT’s GIS and modeling lab. “While we continue to extend the geographic coverage of the ACTs—more countries and more regions within countries—our current goal is to increase usage. We need to look hard at post-workshop adoption and make sure people get the most out of the ACTs.”

Concurrently, the collaboration with the ACT developers has entered a new phase with the “spin-off” of the ACT from Texas A&M to Mud Springs Geographers, Inc. John Corbett, the company’s president (and the agricultural geographer who first brought GIS to CIMMYT), emphasizes that Mud Springs is committed to assisting CIMMYT and its partners in the developing world. Experience shows that such collaboration strengthens Mud Springs’ data, software, and service products for developed country markets, as well as providing a motivating and enlightening experience for its employees.