Crop Information PortalAgriculture Information System

Building Provincial Capacity for Crop Forecasting and Estimation

International Conference on Innovative Agricultural Financing

April 28-29, 2015 at Hotel Serena, Islamabad

Day 1 – Tuesday 28 April 2015 Session B: Digital platforms in building data-ecosystem for agri-finance

Mr. Muhammad Iftikhar BhattiGeneral Manager (RS & GIS), SUPARCO

Background• The Crop Information Portal is a

component of the Agriculture Information System (AIS) of Pakistan.

• The AIS project concerns the improvement of the capacity of provincial governments to timely collect, analyze and report on agricultural information.

• The Portal allows WEB users to access the historical archive and the latest produced crop and agro-meteorological data, integrated with satellite based information into a GIS like environment.

http://dwms.fao.org/~test/

Factsheet• Major crops currently included are:

wheat (RABI) maize, sugarcane, rice and cotton (KHARIF)

• Crop data: area, production, yield (annual)

• Agro-met indicators: 10 day averages for max and min temp, precipitations, daylight length and NDVI

• Spatial resolution: district, province and country

• Temporal extent: 1999-current date

• Outputs: maps, charts, tables, reports

Factsheet• Implemented by FAO, SUPARCO

and USDA

• Based on open source technologies and international geospatial standards

• Web graphical interface for generic users interaction

• Web graphical interface (login) for administrators managing data and running processes

• Currently, one national instance at SUPARCO and 2 provincial instances at Lahore (CRS Punjab) and Karachi (CRS Sindh)

Portal Main User Interface

Portal modules• Crop Data Explorer: set filters, area of

interest and time period and produce outputs such as tables, charts and choropleth maps

• Agro-Meteorological Data Explorer: set filters to extract statistics on variables such as temperature, precipitation, decadal NDVI, etc..) as data or charts

• Crop Health Status: agromet variables compared to the requirements of a selected crop in a selected growing season

• Map Composer: WEB mapping application based on International standards allowing local or remote datasets to be displayed and analyzed in a GIS like environment

Example of use• Task: chart annual trend of wheat data in 3 districts of Punjab

Crop data can be retrieved and analyzed using the graphic interface on the left. The system allows users to: Select output type

• Generate time-series charts (Chart) Filter available crops by season (Rabi)

Select area of interest Type: Group of District (from list or by clicking on map)

Identify crop of interest (wheat) Select time interval for the averaging (2000-2012)

Select Units of Measure (default)

RESULTS

Example of use• Task: chart annual trend of wheat data in 3 districts of Punjab

Examples of Outputs

Main Benefits• One shop access to historical data on annual crop

production, harvested area and yield and seasonal trend of agro-met variables– Harmonization of data currently scattered at national

and local institutions, in various formats and units

• Improvement in data management– Standardization, minor effort in data merging and

reduction of errors

• Improvement in data access– Ability to easily generate customized charts, maps and

reports based on subsets of data stored in primary DB

• Improvement in CRS’s regular crop reporting– Custom charts and maps can be generated and extracted

for a rapid enrichment of monthly bulletins with ancillary data

Training Workshop on Crop Information Portal and GeoNetwork software. 20-31 Jan 2014.

FAO and SUPARCO organized a two week training workshop in Islamabad:• Jan 20-23: Administrating the Crop

Information Portal • Jan 24-27: Using the Crop

Information Portal • Jan 28-31: GeoNetwork opensource

software

11

Nineteen experts from Crop Reporting Services of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan; from the Agriculture Universities of Tandojam

and Faisalabad and from SUPARCO

Up coming Updates • Based on user feedback, collected during trainings and workshops the portal is being

enhanced to incorporate the following dataset and functionalities • Main groups of updates are:

– Filtering: Scalable charting and user defined data seasonal limits for Agromet/NDVI data.

– Data: Include data on fertilizers, irrigation water and market prices; also, include alternative crop data estimates.

– Charting: Compare alternative areas or crops in one chart; the choice of different chart types (lines, bars, pies etc..); the choice of user defined units of measure (e.g. acres for areas), and more.

These updates will be implemented by the end September 2015. Such development is currently on going.

• The next slides summarize some of the most exciting updates• The finalization of this second version of the Portal is

estimated for the end of May 2015.

Alternative Chart Types• Combinati

on of types and rendering

• Comparison of different areas for a selected crop

• Stacking data

Alternative Chart Types• Combinati

on of types and rendering

• Comparison of different areas for a selected crop

• Stacking data

Alternative Chart Types• Combinati

on of types and rendering

• Comparison of different areas for a selected crop

• Stacking data

Combined Agro-met Variables• Combined chart on 12 months

time range

Improved Mapping

• Map selected year

• Map Average selected period

• Map Anomalies

map of 2010 harvested area with rice

Improved Mapping• Map

selected year

• Map Average selected period

• Map Anomalies

map of 2008-2012 average production for wheat

Improved Mapping

• Map selected year

• Map Average selected period

• Map Anomalies

map of 2012 minus average 1999-2012 area for sugarcane

Improved data content• Fertilizers

consumption• Water

discharge• Market prices• Additional

sources of crop data

Annual summaries per province (*)

(*) Currently, the database is empty except for few records used to test

Improved data content• Fertilizers

consumption• Water

discharge• Market

prices• Additional

sources of crop data

Monthly data per District (*)

(*) Currently, the database is empty except for few records used to test (only Nitrogen, 5 months in 2011)

Improved data content• Fertilizers

consumption• Water

discharge• Market prices• Additional

sources of crop data

Modules under construction as we speak

Crop Information PortalAgriculture Information System

Building Provincial Capacity for Crop Forecasting and Estimation

Mr. Muhammad Iftikhar BhattiGeneral Manager (RS & GIS), SUPARCO

Thank you