EthioSIS

Continued Collaboration in Ethiopia to Build a National Soil System

AfSIS partners in Ethiopia, the Agriculture Transformation Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture, have made great progress in the past few months. The Ethiopian Soil Information Service (EthioSIS) operations team, supported by AfSIS staff, has nearly completed the roll out of the soil surveying teams. They are now heavily focused in supporting Ethiopia’s soil laboratories and turning their attention more and more to the work of concerting raw data into digital soil maps.

The EthioSIS team proposed a “catchment area” model as part of our phasing plan. The model assigns CPs to each processing center based on geographic distribution.

To date, EthioSIS has trained 38 soil survey- ors to use AfSIS survey methods, and the surveyors have visited 22 sample sites around the country. The teams have collected more than 4000 soil samples, and the samples are now being processed at six processing centers. To offer insight and experience, AfSIS sent two of its senior soil surveyors to Ethiopia in May. The surveyors were embedded with EthioSIS teams for two weeks and concluded their trip with a presentation to the EthioSIS team.

“With the launch of the project, Ethiopia is jumping to the front of the queue in using satellite technology and spectral analysis to create one of the world’s most comprehensive digital soil maps. This is truly an innovative and pioneering endeavor. EthioSIS will help Ethiopians to make informed land use decisions and to better manage our soil resources,” explained Sam Gameda, Director, Soil Health and Fertility, Agricultural Transformation Agency.

In June, a high level delegation from Ethiopia visited with AfSIS staff in Nairobi and Arusha. The delegation included Professor Tekalign Mamo, EthioSIS Project Leader and Advisor to the Minister with the rank of State Minister, Dr. Take Bekele, ATA Senior Technical Advisor for the Soil Program, Dr. Tilahun Geleto, Director of Soil and Water Research, Oromia Agricultural Institute, and Eric Couper, then AfSIS ICT and Agriculture Coordinator. The very fruitful visit included extensive discussions around the lab procedures at the ICRAF laboratory in Nairobi and around sampling methods in Arusha. Most importantly, they visit laid the groundwork for formal MOUs between AfSIS and those

managing EthioSIS. ‘’It was an invaluable trip as we have discussed and agreed on a range of technical issues as well as on key collaborative initiatives that we plan to implement soon,” stated Professor Tekalign Mamo, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture with the rank of State Minister and EthioSIS Program Leader.

In the coming months, EthioSIS will begin wet chemistry analysis, receive their spectral equipment, and begin the spectral analysis. AfSIS staff will support the efforts with remote consultations and visits to Ethiopia for collaborative training. Additionally, Joseph Muhlhausen, a staff member from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) recently completed two and a half months in Ethiopia where he trained and supported the staff who will develop EthioSIS’s soil maps.