Although soil and agronomy data collection in Ethiopia has begun over 60 years ago, the data are hardly accessible as they are scattered across different organizations, mostly held in the hands of individuals (Ashenafi et al.,2020; Tamene et al.,2022), which makes them vulnerable to permanent loss. Cognizant of the problem, the Coalition of the Willing (CoW) for data sharing and access was created in 2018 with joint support and coordination of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT and GIZ (https://www.ethioagridata.com/index.html).
Mobilizing its members, the CoW has embarked on data rescue operations including data ecosystem mapping, collation, and curation of the legacy data, which was put into the central data repository for its members and the wider data user’s community according to the guideline developed based on the FAIR data principles and approved by the CoW. So far, CoW managed to collate and rescue about 20,000 legacy soil profile data and over 38,000 crop responses to fertilizer data (Tamene et al.,2022). The crop response dataset (N=946 observations) is extracted, transformed, and uploaded into a harmonized template, consisting of 76 variables.
The CASCAPE project was designed to support the Agricultural Growth Programme (AGP) by further strengthening the capacity of AGP stakeholders in identifying, documenting and disseminating best practices in agricultural production. CASCAPE was jointly executed by Ethiopian researchers from Jimma University, Bahir Dar University, Hawassa University, Mekelle University, Addis Ababa University and Dutch researchers from Wageningen University and Research Centre. In each site researchers from the universities and from the RARIs from different disciplines work on the CASCAPE project. The CASCAPE project is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands (https://www.wur.nl/en/show/cascape-1.htm). To solve the soil fertility and plant nutrition problems in Ethiopia, CASCAPE Project conducted various soil surveys and fertilizer experiments, during the period of 2011 to 2019, and generated crop responses to the fertilizer application dataset covering Ethiopia.
Reference:
Ashenafi, A., Tamene, L., and Erkossa, T. 2020. Identifying, Cataloguing, and Mapping Soil and Agronomic Data in Ethiopia. CIAT Publication No. 506. International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 42 p. 10.13140/RG.2.2.31759.41123.
Tamene L; Erkossa T; Tafesse T; Abera W; Schultz S. 2021. A coalition of the Willing - Powering data-driven solutions for Ethiopian Agriculture. CIAT Publication No. 518. International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 34 p. https://www.ethioagridata.com/Resources/Powering%20Data-Driven%20Solutions%20for%20Ethiopian%20Agriculture.pdf.
The Coalition of the Willing (CoW) website: https://www.ethioagridata.com/index.html.
TERMS:
Access to the data is limited to the CoW members until the national soil and agronomy data-sharing directive of MoA is registered by the Ministry of Justice and released for implementation.
DISCLAIMER:
The dataset populated in the harmonized template consisting of 76 variables is extracted, transformed, and uploaded from the source document by the CoW. Hence, if any irregularities are observed, the data users have referred to the source document uploaded along with the dataset. Use of the dataset and any consequences arising from using it is the user’s sole responsibility.
