|
|
|
 |
 |
Ethiopia:
Training Workshop |
January 21-23, and 28-29, 2003
Michael Coan
The first session was given in Yirga Chefe (Y.C.), and was tailored to an audience of field personnel, such as extension agents and cooperative/farmer trainers.
The second session was given in Addis Ababa to an upper level management group of the three Unions of Cooperatives, along with selected trainees from the first session.
Both these sessions addressed the uses of Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies, particularly as they may be implemented for cooperatve coffee growing areas. All example fieldwork was done in the pilot coffee area of Y.C.
The Y.C. pilot area represents only one of at least 21 cooperative coffee growing areas where these technologies may be applied.
Ethiopian Districts and Woredas which contain Coffee-Growing Cooperatives
Training Session 1:
Jan 21 (Tuesday): AM - Begin instruction of 12 trainees.
Material covered:
Introduction to Topographic Maps, Satellite Imagery (Landsat 7), and other kinds of spatial data. Map Projections and Coordinate Systems. Discussion of Basic Principles of GPS.
Jan 21 (Tuesday): PM - GPS operation: outdoors demonstrations and practice.
Provided Trainees with extensive hands-on "button-pushing" to learn how to operate the handheld GPS units. Developed work plan for field session of next day, involving splitting trainees into 4 groups. Each group was assigned a vehicle and a general area to explore, but left details to them to plan a route to locate "edges of coffee" in the Yirga Chefe coffee growing area.
Jan 22 (Wednesday): AM - Groups performed field work, traveling through their designated directions.
Located "edges of coffee", both horizontally and vertically, along with Cooperative structures, villages, clinics, river crossings, etc. Returned to Y.C. for lunch.
Jan 22 (Wednesday): PM - Compiled data collected by groups in AM.
Downloaded points and tracklogs from each GPS unit used in AM field session, while trainees plotted their recorded points on topographic maps and on a portion of a satellite image. Discussions of day's work, and provided a brief laptop demonstration of GIS being built with their data just acquired.
Jan 23 (Thursday): AM - Groups to field, to supplement work done on prior day.
 Jan 23 (Thursday): PM - Compiled data collected by groups in AM
Again downloaded points and tracklogs, and gave further demonstrations of GIS with their data. Discussions of difficulties that become apparent when using contours as a means to define coffee growing areas, ie: lower elevation was more variable than upper elevation. Further discussion of uses of Landsat imagery, enhanced to identify differences in vegetation, and of how both topography and satellite imagery were needed for clear understanding of a complex area. Concluded with discussion of the value of GPS units, for local experts such as themselves to go into the field to collect features of interest to them and others, and of how a GIS could be built and used for other purposes.
Training Session 2:
Jan 28 (Tuesday): Management training session.
Attendees: Four senior Union officials from the Oromia, Sidama and Yirga Chefe Unions, along with four exceptional trainees of the prior week from Yirga Chefe.
Material covered was similar to prior week, but without extensive field session.
Jan 29 (Wednesday): AM - Field demonstration of GPS units.
The four trainees from Yirga Chefe acted as demonstration guides for the management people. Afterwards, there was extensive discussion of the value of spatial data for various management purposes.
Attendees listed their perceived uses of GPS and GIS:
1) Locations of all farmers in a cooperative are required for organic certification. All attendees appreciated how easily this can be done with GPS.
2) Coffee varieties are very altitude dependent - by using the altitude derived with the GPS units, the extension agents can use GPS to analyse each farms altitude range and ultimately recommend particular optimum varieties to farmers based on farm altitudes.
3) Once farms are located, GIS can easily compute management requirements of farm areas and coffee production calculations.
4) Besides farm locations, special demonstration plots and features can need to be located (GPS) and monitored over time (GIS).
Jan 29 (Wednesday): PM - Travelled to office of Information Systems Services (ISS), a local GIS firm.
ISS, an Addis Ababa based company, demonstrated their implementations of GIS in various private and government projects, and described their recent experiences with assisting the Sidamo region coffee growers. Discussions of the availability of GIS training in software, the provision of suitable hardware, and of potential guidance in designing specialized implementations of GIS for the three Unions, along with the special needs of an overseeing Federation of Unions.
Landsat Image With GPS Tracklogs and Waypoints Collected by Field Work, Jan 22-23.
Note: Yellow Dots are "Edge Of Coffee", Yellow and Orange lines are 100m contours.
| |
