1. April 28-29, 2015 at Hotel Serena, Islamabad
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
Crop Information Portal Agriculture Information System Building Provincial Capacity for Crop Forecasting and Estimation
Mr. Muhammad Iftikhar Bhatti
General Manager (RS & GIS), SUPARCO

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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)

5. Portal Main User Interface

6. 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

7. 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 ( )
Select Units of Measure (default)
RESULTS

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

9. Examples of Outputs

10. 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

11. FAO and SUPARCO organized a two week training workshop in Islamabad:
Training Workshop on Crop Information Portal and GeoNetwork software 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
Nineteen experts from Crop Reporting Services of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan; from the Agriculture Universities of Tandojam and Faisalabad and from SUPARCO

12. 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 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.

13. Alternative Chart Types
Combination of types and rendering
Comparison of different areas for a selected crop
Stacking data

14. Alternative Chart Types
Combination of types and rendering
Comparison of different areas for a selected crop
Stacking data

15. Alternative Chart Types
Combination of types and rendering
Comparison of different areas for a selected crop
Stacking data

16. Combined Agro-met Variables
Combined chart on 12 months time range

17. map of 2010 harvested area with rice
Improved Mapping
map of 2010 harvested area with rice
Map selected year
Map Average selected period
Map Anomalies

18. map of 2008-2012 average production for wheat
Improved Mapping
Map selected year
Map Average selected period
Map Anomalies
map of average production for wheat

19. map of 2012 minus average 1999-2012 area for sugarcane
Improved Mapping
map of 2012 minus average area for sugarcane
Map selected year
Map Average selected period
Map Anomalies

20. Annual summaries per province (*)
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

21. Monthly data per District (*)
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)

22. Modules under construction as we speak
Improved data content
Fertilizers consumption
Water discharge
Market prices
Additional sources of crop data
Modules under construction as we speak

23. Crop Information Portal Agriculture Information System Building Provincial Capacity for Crop Forecasting and Estimation
Thank you
Mr. Muhammad Iftikhar Bhatti
General Manager (RS & GIS), SUPARCO