Biometrics, GIS and

Agro-meteorology
Research Support
Process (BG AP)

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EtWoplan Institute o f Agriculture! Research
 Table of Contents

In tro d u c tio n 1
V ision 2
M ission 3
M ajor areas of activities 3
S u p p o rt a n d Services 4
T rain in g , w o rk sh o p s a n d
sem in ars 6
O rg a n iz in g / sto rin g d a ta in a
c e n tra liz ed D atab ase 9
C o n d u c tin g research 11
C o llab o rativ e research 12
P o te n tia l research p rojects b ein g
c o n d u c te d or to be c o n d u c te d by
BGAP 13
 Biometrics, GIS and
Agro-meteorology
Research Support Process
(BGAP)

Introduction

The Biometrics, Geographical Inform ation

System (GIS) and A gro-m eteorology
Research Support Process (BGAP)
reengineering activity is com pleted and
implemented as o f July 2009. BGAP is
mandated to provide dem and based,
effective and efficient support and advisory
services in the area o f project protocol
development; data m anagem ent, processing
and use; spatial models and m apping; using
weather information in projects to help
researchers generate more targeted
technologies; and using spatial inform ation
in projects that deals with spatial orientation.
The process also provides capacity buiiding
activities to raise research's technical
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capability; dissem inate new developm ents
through workshops and seminars. It also
generates inform ation/know ledge by
conducting research. That is collaborating
with the core research process and/or
identifying problem s by its custom ers and/or
from researchers own experience.

C urrently this research support process has

54 staff m em bers; that is four in GIS (MSc
level), 45 in agro-m eteorology (lP h D ,
2M Sc. lB S c, 1 certificate and 40 observers).
4 in B iom etrics (lP h D , 2 M Sc and 1 BSc)
and 1 office secretary.

Vision
To see the EIAR generate quality and
trustw orthy technologies for relevant and
appropriate policy direction and also to
im prove the lives o f ordinary people.

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Mission

Provide information, support researchers

and other customers who use EIAR
products. The overall m ission is increasing
agricultural productivity, sustainable food
security; econom ic developm ent and
conservation o f natural resources by
enabling the system generate and adopt high
quality and efficient technology.

Major areas of activities

According to the new direction o f

business/research reengineering process
implementation, the Biom etrics. GIS and
Agro-m eteorology research support process
identifies some them es of
objectives/activities based on the needs and
expectations o f custom ers and stakeholders.
The major are:
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 EIAR BGAP

• provision o f support and

services;
• capacity building;
• conducting research;
• using inform ation technology
to dissem inate research results
and outputs.

Support and Services

The Biom etrics. GIS and A gro-m eteorology

research support process helps users and
stakeholders perform efficient, targeted,
cost-effective precise and relevant
researches by:

■ Support on clim ate change and climate

variability and help core processes
m ainstream clim ate change aspects in
their work.

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 E IA R

■ Provision o f w eather data, advice and

support on use o f w eather data to
generate appropriate technologies

■ Support and advice to all projects in

the NARS, based on their dem and, on
designing o f experim ents and sample
surveys, data m anagem ent, data
analyses, interpretation o f results
review o f research proposals, reports
and scientific papers.

■ On-site support and advice to regional

research institutes w hich need special
attention on research m ethodologies
and information collaborating with
respective research process’s and
based on the interest o f users.

■ Advice on use o f G PS, Spatial data

source identification, m anagem ent and

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 E1AR BGAP

use, software tools to be used and their

methods.

■ Support on limited digitizing, studying

site location and other thematic maps
preparation, assisting in field data
collection and research site selection as
needed.

Training, W orkshops and Seminars

One o f the goals o f the BGAP is to help

increase the capacity o f users and
stakeholders conduct and deliver high
quality research by:

■ Providing training on designing

experim ents and sample surveys,
data m anagem ent, analyses,
interpretation and presentation o f
results using different statistical,
GIS and A grom eteorology data
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 m anagem ent and analyses
software. The trainings are
classified as:

1. Basic tra in in g :- this focus on

GIS, GPS, rem ote sensing
m ethods, statistical and w eather
data m anagem ent tools. The
targets are all ju n io r researchers
(or researchers who jo in EIAR
recently). The data analyses
packages/ softw ares could be
statistical such as SAS, SPSS or
GENSTAT, GIS and remote
sensing such as ArcGIS,
Arcview, ERDAS Imagine, or
INSTAT which is m ore relevant
for w eather and clim ate related
activities.

2. A dvanced tra in in g :- This is

provided on specific statistical
methods suitable for researchers
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 EIA R BGAP

working in different research

projects in different fields o f
specialization like: breeding,
agronom y, socio economics,
research extension, forestry,
biotechnology and other areas.
(The training will be organized in
collaboration with the respective
research process coordinators).
Statistical softwares could be:
SAS, SPSS or GENSTAT.

3. Training on weather data

collection, com pilation and
discrim ination, and station
m anagem ent

4. Training and awareness raising on

clim ate change and variability
and its im portance to consider in
research projects.

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 Organizing and carrying out
useful scientific w orkshops and
seminars

O rganizing/storing Data in a
Centralized Database

The Biometerics, GIS and A gro­

m eteorology research support process
tackles the problem o f users and
stakeholders access quality, non-
redundant and tim ely data organized
and centralized way by providing
support in:

■ Establishing centralized database

for the institute’s experim ental/
survey based research data and land
& climate information.

■ Exploring and organizing prim ary

and secondary data collected by
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 EIA R BGAP

different processes in the past but

not partly or fully used by
stakeholders.

■ Storing prim ary and/or secondary

data in a database so that it would
be used/ reused by researchers to
im prove quality of research
projects outputs, help policy
m akers evaluate course o f research
from time to time and avoid
redundancy o f collecting similar
inform ation.

■ Researchers in this process will

have an opportunity perform or to
develop several statistical models,
m ethod and software package
evaluation using data from this
central database without any data
related cost. The output from these
studies will be o f good input to
research m ethodology and data
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 E1AR

analysis com ponent. It is therefore

expected to im prove the quality o f
research outputs.

Conducting Research

Biometrics, GIS and A grom eteorology

research support conducts collaborative and
basic research which helps EIAR deliver
quality, relevant, targeted and trustw orthy
research output/technology. These are:

Collaborative Research
Collaborative research is a research done in
collaboration between BGA and E IA R ’s
major research processes; crop, livestock,
soils and water, forestry and m echanization.
BGA gives priority to participate in
identifying, proposing and im plem enting
research projects which require national-

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 E IA R BGAP

level attention within different agricultural

research processes.

The support is given by:

1. participating in the planning and

designing stage o f some prioritized
research projects
2. participating in the review process
o f national projects and providing
productive or im portant comments
on im portant aspects o f statistical
m ethodology part
3. Participating in the modeling,
m apping analyzing, interpreting
and review /w rite up o f research
results o f some selected projects.

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 EIAR

Potential research projects being

conducted or to be conducted by
BGAP

The BGAP also conducts basic and applied

research to help assure quality and relevance
o f other research projects in the different
processes o f EIAR and increase precision o f
their results. Research priorities are set in
accordance with the interest and dem and o f
the different research processes at E IA R and
stakeholders. Some o f the basic research
areas include:

• Study o f impacts o f clim ate change

and related issues

• Generating useful inform ation and

suitable technologies on clim ate
change and variability and agro­
ecology which is useful to support

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 EIARfjjfjflill
research activities in agro-
m eteorological aspects.

• D eveloping new or m odified survey

m ethods for estim ation of
production and yield losses for
different crops, supported by GIS
and rem ote sensing.

• Developing appropriate yield

forecasting m ethods to enhance
strategies for food security
• G enerating latest inform ation (map)
on spatial pattern o f crop, forest,
grazing and range land and change
coverage.

• Generating inform ation on land

suitability analysis for
crops/varieties. watershed
delineation and characterization,
Land/forest cover and change

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 E3AR

m apping soil erosion/degradation

and range land condition assessm ent
and mapping.

• D eveloping im proved/new statistical

or econometric analyses m ethods
and models suitable to the main
objective o f increasing precision o f
research results o f the identified
(prioritized) research projects. (Here
the main projects may be revised
after the revision o f the statistical
methods).

• D eterm ining optim um plot size and

shape for different crop and
livestock feed experim ents suitable
to E thiopia’s agro-ecology condition
and other influencing factors.

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