Regional cooperation requires a strong understanding of the economic, social, and ecological trends of a region. Agricultural Innovations uses GIS to create meaningful maps that enhance the decision making process. A well-designed map allows a number of complex factors to be analyzed rather quickly.
The Central American economies, for example, rely on different natural resources for their primary exports. Using GIS, this can be depicted in a concise and readable format.
Maps such as this one assist in identifying potential trading partners, areas of economic priority, or weakness in the national and regional economy.
Just as some countries have certain strengths and advantages over others, separate departments within a single country also have their differences. GIS permits the rapid assessment of key questions and priorities, and helps to provide a national context for local development strategies.
In Nicaragua, different departments have received varying levels of technical assistance in agricultural production. GIS makes this easy to quantify and visualize.
Nicaragua: Percentage of Farmers that Received Training in Agriculture by Department, 2001
GIS and Community Planning
Agricultural Innovations uses GIS technology to include farmers and other stakeholders in the planning process. Making geographic information available to rural communities raises local awareness about the causes of poverty, land degradation, and malnutrition.
Despite the enormous growth of GIS as a planning tool in both the public and private sector, the extent to which it is used as a participatory planning device at the rural level is still minimal. By providing GIS services for participatory analysis and project design, Agricultural Innovations bridges the digital divide between the rural community and modern information technology.
In this example, we have acquired a satellite image of the Tipajara watershed, a watershed in the arid valleys of Cochabamba, Bolivia. By using image processing, ground truthing, and a GPS, the following map was created.
Irrigated Parcels in the Community of Tipa Tipa; Tipajara watershed Mizque, Bolivia
These are only a few examples of the potential uses of GIS in project planning and design. Please contact us for more information.
