Training/Capacity Building

Within the project three formal training workshops were conducted with a focus on simple GIS and GPS. A total of 90 NARS participants attended the workshops, representing 24 different organizations and three of the RWC countries (unfortunately no participants from Pakistan were able to attend any of the training workshops). All training workshops included a significant ?hands-on? component. In addition, informal training, particularly in the use of GPS, was given to many RWC partners within India and Nepal.

Training activities had a marked effect on the collection of field data by RWC partners. At the inception of the project, hardly any field data collected had geo-referencing information whereas at the end of the project many partners were submitting field data with precise locations.

A variety of simple GIS tools (MapExplorer, DIVA-GIS, ArcExplorer, Country Almanac & IIT-Delhi Java GIS) were introduced to RWC partners during a stake-holder workshop at the inception phase of the project. One of most feature-rich tools demonstrated, the Country Almanac, proved to be the most popular amongst stake-holders and plans were made for continued development of this tool. However, due to unforeseen circumstances this tool ceased to be a free public domain software tool and became commercial software. As a result, development of this tool within the ADB project was discontinued. However, separate USAID funding permitted CIMMYT-Bangladesh to go ahead with an independent project resulting in a Bangladesh Country Almanac, which helped to strengthen GIS capacity within the region. In place of the Country Almanac the IIT-Delhi Java GIS tool was developed and subsequently incorporated into the final Rice-Wheat Atlas.

During the course of the project several key digital datasets were generated. These included:

• A digital soil map covering the whole Indian IGP at 1:250,000 scale
• A digital agro-ecological region map
• Digital maps of temporal nitrate concentration in Punjab and village-wise nitrate concentration for Karnal and Kurukshetra districts in Haryana
• Spatial distribution of Phalaris minor resistance to Isoproton
• Spatial distribution of the adoption of a wide range of RCTs throughout the IGP
• Spatial distribution of agricultural machinery manufacturers (including zero-till and bed planting equipment), including full contact details for 470 machinery manufacturers
• Digital flood area maps for Haryana during 1955 and 1995
• Digital water table maps for Haryana
• Temporal flood maps for Bihar derived through remotely sensed information.
• Precise spatial distribution of underutilized land types (rice fallows, current fallows, water-logged areas, excessive moisture areas, sodic lands) and crop areas (wheat, late-planted wheat, and rice) for Ballia district, eastern UP through remotely sensed information

In addition, a vast range of existing digital datasets - including amongst others biophysical factors, climate, socio-economics and demographic data - were compiled and integrated with the generated data. Over 150 layers of spatial data were incorporated into a Rice Wheat digital Atlas, which was then distributed as an information resource to RWC partners on CD-ROM. Comprehensive, fully geo-referenced databases were developed to manage project data relating to experimental sites for RCTs and farmer adoption sites for RCTs. With the assistance of IIT-Delhi user interfaces for these databases were developed to facilitate data entry and query. These databases are being distributed to RWC partners on CD-ROM.

GIS and Remote Sensing technologies were applied to the characterization and identification of underutilized lands in which RCTs could offer significant benefits. Using the district of Ballia, eastern UP as a case study area, methodologies were successfully developed that permitted the accurate determination of all major underutilized land types in which productivity enhancement could occur.