Introduction
AfSIS is launching a pilot project using a mobile platform called ‘ICT4Ag‘ to collect and analyze farm-specific information. The survey tool will document farm input-output quantities such as yields and economic returns to identify the current state of agricultural efficiency. The objective is to use survey information in conjunction with the above soil mapping data to improve agricultural models and provide feedback, management advice and extension information.
In December, AfSIS sent two staff members to Ethiopia to help Ethiopia’s Agriculture Transformation Agency launch a new country-wide soil research initiative. The soil collection teams used Android-based tablets for their work, marking the first time that soil research has … Continue reading
Last week, Eric Couper, AfSIS’ ICT and Agriculture Coordinator, had the opportunity to discuss AfSIS’ mobile data collection work with colleagues and students affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Chris Planicka wrote about the presentation for the New Media Task … Continue reading
November 1-3, Eric Couper, AfSIS ICT and agriculture coordinator, participated in an ICT4Rural Development conference hosted by SANGONeT in Johannesburg, South Africa. We’ve included a few notes here for those who couldn’t make it. In a previous post, we covered … Continue reading
November 1-3, Eric Couper, AfSIS’ ICT and Agriculture Coordinator, participated in an ICT4Rural Development conference hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa by SANGONeT. We’ve included some notes here for those who couldn’t make it. In a follow-up post, we will highlight … Continue reading
As we have been highlighting on this blog, there is a lot more that goes into a survey than writing up questions and then asking people those questions. Surveying requires hiring, training, device selection, translation issues, logistics, and so on … Continue reading
NOTE TO THE READER: This post serves as a follow up to and elaboration on our first training post. That post, while titled ”Introduction to AfSIS Enumerator Training,” served as an introduction to our project more generally. We hope this post answers more … Continue reading
During a recent discussion of our work, one Earth Institute scientist mentioned that he was worried about the quality of the GPS built into Android devices. It is a real concern. Depending on the level of precision that your organization … Continue reading
From Surveying 101, we all know that how you ask a question can radically change the answer you get. We work in a bilingual office (English and Kiswahili) and are researching a bilingual population (Kiswahili and Kimaasai), so this truth … Continue reading
