As a follow up activity of the Web 2.0 learning opportunity, a joint project for the mapping of sugarcane fields in an irrigated zone has been initiated in collaboration with fellow participant and colleague, Mr. Roopesh Ramburn of the Irrigation Authority. A brief of this project was also presented during the closing ceremony of the Web 2.0 training workshop which took place on Friday 27th July, 2012, at the University of Mauritius.
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| Yash Ramdharee presenting the joint project at the University of Mauritius |
View A full presentation of the joint project
The idea behind this project is to develop a tool for monitoring and evaluation of sugar cane production in an irrigated project (St Felix Small Scale Irrigation Project) which was set up in 1998 and comprises some 175 small farmers on an area of about 95 hectares. It must also be pointed out a number of farmers in this project have since 2011 joined the Field Operations Irrigation and Regrouping Project which is being implemented by the Mauritius Cane Industry Authority with funds under the EU- accompanying measures for small sugar cane farmers as mentionned in the Multi Annual Adaptation Strategy Action Plan 2011-2015. Read more on The MAAS report 2006-2015
Mapping and updating of the individual farmers plots are expected to be completed by the end of December 2012 with the end of this years' sugar harvest season. The next step will be to share and use this information among interested parties.
I am glad to see that you are making use of the tools you have learned.
ReplyDeleteI wish you an exciting journey and would wish to see regular progress posts on the implementation. Try to make it know to wider audience. You have started small and i am sur you will leap at a later stage. Cant it be done for the other regions at a later stage.
Kamlesh
Dear Kamlesh,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. Your suggestions are always welcome.
As you see, this is but a pilot project. At the end of this assignment in December 2012, Roopesh and other colleagues will have to think about trying the web tools in other areas as well.
Dear Yash,
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Mapping information about each plot of land on Google maps will be a tool not only for the MCIA and the IA, but also for many other stakeholders like the SIFB and farmer organisations. On top of that, this exercise can be replicated for other regions as well. We will need collaboration from the other stakeholders. Do you think its going to be easy to convince our respective organisations about sharing of such a tool?
Can such a tool also fit into the e-agriculture project?
Dear Navin,
ReplyDeleteYou are very right about the sharing opportunities with other institutions. Hopefully we shall shortly come to that point and will see what happens ahead. But, I do realise that this whole idea of sharing is not going to be a piece of cake either.
If I understood the Mauritian e-agriculture project well, I see it as a portal for access to the various services provided by the Government and its departments including parastatals than a tool in itself. This project has reached an advanced stage and authorities would be soon enter the implementation phase (supply and installation of hardware and software,training etc). I think it is going to be Web 2.0 compliant also.
In the end, it all will depend on what the users will make out of it.
Hope this clarifies.
Yash
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ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to
all your posts! Carry on the excellent work!
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