Geodata for Agriculture and Water Facility (G4AW)

Over 80 organisations across 10 partner countries have initiated a total of 17 Geodata for Agriculture and Water Facility (G4AW) projects. They are building business models for public/private partnerships to deliver financially sustainable services. Involved organisations are using existing technology and services, empowering the most important actors in the food production chain: farmers, fishermen and pastoralists.

An overview of the G4AW projects and contact details are available in the Overview G4AW projects 2013-2016

• GIACIS (Ethiopia), G4INDO (Indonesia) and SUM-Africa (Mali, Uganda) aim to guarantee income of and investments by small holder food producers. 
• CommonSense supports sesame producers in Ethiopia by providing weather and agro-advisory services.
• CROPMON in Kenya builds a crop monitoring system to alert farmers about non optimal growth conditions. 
• Smallholder farmers in Bangladesh will benefit from GEOBIS’ as well as IDSS’ agricultural advice, and GEOPOTATO to prevent potato disease. 
• In Vietnam, resilience of rice producing communities will be improved by Sat4Rice and 
• GREENcoffee will help Vietnamese coffee farmers improve their production, income and food security. 
• SMART seeds will support vegetable farmers in Indonesia to increase their production and reduce the inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides. 
• MUIIS will help increase crops of maize, soy bean and sesame in Uganda, combined with insurance for farmers.
• MODHEM improves moving herd management and incomes for Burkina Faso’s pastoralists. 
• In Mali, STAMP aims to improve resilience among climate affected pastoralists. Ensuring local food security is R4A’s goal, through activation of a digital information portal supported by a participatory model. 
• Geodatics helps farmers and agribusiness clients to optimise their business activities. 
• SIKIA will support rice farmers in Tanzania with weather forecasts and crop advices and strengthen the value chain: SIKIA, SAGCOT integrated Knowledge and Information for Agriculture

Please see the project leaflets to learn more about the ways G4AW projects help to improve food security.

Related:

23 August, 2017. Tanzania. The International Center for Evaluation and Development (ICED) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania signed a Memorandum of Understanding signifying the birth of a strategic partnership between the two organizations.

The MOU was signed by ICED President and CEO, Dr. David Ameyaw and Vice Chancellor of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Prof. Raphael Chibunda.

Under this partnership, ICED and SUA will work together in the following areas:

• Obtain resources from public, donors, private and philanthropic foundations and grants.
• Jointly develop proposals to secure resources for the partnership work.
• Parties will use the funds in accordance with the laid down agreement.

Other areas of cooperation include:

• Identification of project.
• Agree on the scope of work.



ICED President Dr. David Ameyaw, (2nd left)
and Dr. Adam Meshack Akyoo, Dean of the Department
of Agriculture Economic and Agribusiness ,
Sokoine University of Agriculture, (2nd right)
pose for a photo after signing the MOU.
Looking on are Vice President Samuel Boakye (right)

• Continuously evaluate new opportunities, identify sources of capital and advocate policy changes, which promote and attract financing for evaluators.

The Chief Executive Officer and President of ICED, Dr. David Ameyaw said the new partnership is expected to evaluate and monitor Government projects. (...) Rice Farmers in Sagcot to benefit from Market Survey. ICED, supported by Sokoine University of Agriculture lead Researcher. Prof Damian M. Gabagambi and a team of supervisors and enumerators has undertaken a Market Survey for the SAGCOT Integrated Knowledge and Information for Agriculture. 

The project is being funded by Geodata for Agriculture and Water Facility (G4AW), and The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and implemented by TechForce Innovations B.V., Milan Innovincy B.V., Kadaster International and Kilimo Trust. They are being supported by a host of other organizations in Tanzania.

More than 125,000 small holder rice farmers are set to benefit from this survey, whose main goal is to analyze the importance of information services acquired from satellite geodata (environmental, weather, crop status via radar data, and plot boundaries information) as well as data acquired under the clouds (multispectral agronomic information) and web-based information. The survey also targets small-holder farmers and agribusinesses.

When completed and implemented, it is hoped that the information gathered will increase yields, incomes and better the lives of farmers in this region. The report on the Market survey is expected to be out in September, 2017.

Related:

10 to 11 August, 2017. The International Center for Evaluation and Development (ICED) and Ghana Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation held a two day monitoring and evaluation workshop for M&E officers.

The workshop was to develop the Government Results Framework for 2017-2020 based on strategic priorities and outcomes, was attended by 40 participants drawn from 36 ministries in Ghana.

UPCOMING EVENTS
24th-25th September, 2017. TANZANIA. Systematic Training in Tanzania
12th – 17th September, 2017. Global Evidence Summit in Cape Town