Deocode Geoconsult Ltd
General Information
Email address
deodatusagricola@gmail.com
Primary contact's full name
Deodatus Agricola
Do you have an OSM account?
Yes
If yes, what is your OSM username?
Deodatus Agricola
Please indicate the name(s) and OSM usernames of any additional individual(s) who will be leading the execution of the project if this application is successful
Antidius Kawamala (OSM Username: KAWAMALA)
If you have an OSM account, please check the boxes that apply
I am a beginner mapper
What is the name of the community group/organization this pitch is being submitted on behalf of?
Deocode Geoconsult Ltd
Is your organization/community group legally registered?
Yes
If you indicated "No" above, please indicate the name of an organization who would be able to accept the funds on your behalf
N/A
Proposed project location
Mbeya City Council; Mbeya Region
Have you previously been AWARDED any grants?
No
Please indicate the total funding amount you are requesting
Tshs. 11,500,000/=
Information About the Project
What is the problem that you are working to address in your community?
(In this section please describe in detail the challenge that your project addresses. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
For the agriculture sector to develop, research concerning the challenges facing agricultural production must be conducted widely. These researches are faced with the major problem of lack of free and open statistical and spatial agricultural data. Lack of open data for agriculture has hindered development in the sector of agriculture whereby the people affected by this are the poor population of Tanzania such as local smallholder farmers.
Availability of these data will enable analyzing the crop production, food security status and make predictions of future production. Also, it will help to communicate what is supposed to be done to improve production and inform investment in the agriculture value chain.
What motivates you to work on this issue?
(what is the reason that triggered, inspired you to work on this issue, we recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
Agriculture is the backbone of our Tanzanian economy. For a very long time it has been, and it is projected to keep sustaining the country for many more years to come. It is not only the source of food and income for smallholder farmers, it is also a source of raw materials for our industries as our country traverses to the industrial economy.
However, there is no assurance for the availability agriculture data. The only source is the national bureau of statistics and the ministry of agriculture. These sources can sometimes be bureaucratic and would not provide updated data. Our project seeks to bridge this gap. We want through our project, to achieve open access to agricultural data. Through our project we will map the agricultural activities on OSM to make the data readily available for use by everyone.
Have you worked on solving the same issue before?
No
If yes, what have you already done to solve this issue?
(Please be specific and highlight your greatest accomplishments, We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) If none, write N/A
Nil
If yes, what challenges have you faced in your work to solve this issue, and how did you respond to these challenges?
(Please be specific and highlight your biggest challenges and how did you solve them,We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) If none, write N/A
Nil
If no, what do you anticipate as challenges while working towards solving the issue?
(Please be specific and highlight the biggest challenge you might face when working on this project ,We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)If none, write N/A
We expect our major challenges to be on engaging with the government and local community. If government authorities will fail to understand our project and feel that it is aimed at competing with the government's efforts then our project will suffer great challenges and may not be as successful as we hope it would. Therefore, in order to ensure that the government officials and village leaders understand our project very well and realize that it is actually aimed at complimenting and adding to their efforts, we will hold workshops and training activities before data collection.
Describe your sustainability plan
(In this section please describe how your activities will continue post-funding. If you are applying for funding to purchase equipment, explain who will store/use the equipment you purchase, and if you have long term sustainability plans for your community's development. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
Our proposed project envisions reaching and impacting smallholder producers (local farmers). This group makes the largest part of the food we eat, and women make up about 80% of its labor force. This project seeks to map agricultural activities taking place in Mbeya city, Mbeya region. Bearing the fact that there is a huge population engaging in agriculture, there are also extension officers responsible for giving technical help to farmers on how to improve their farming methods. Several local organizations work on empowering and advocating for the rights of these smallholder farmers. These three groups (farmers, extension officers, and local organizations) will be active participants in this project. Our team will initially introduce the idea to them, offer training on open-source tools for mapping and open street map (OSM). After capacity building through training, workshops, and mapping exercises, the project will remain under local ownership and management. The project team will remain in support of the extension officers and local organizations to ensure that the project is sustainable and mapping on OSM is continuous.
Project Goal
What are your community defined project goals
(Please explain your project goals. This can include: setting goals such as "we will train X number of new community, "we will register as a legal entity", or "the data will be used by X", and why these goals are important to your community such as "we intend to engage X number of women in mapping activities so that we can empower local women” We recommend your response be a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
a) Deocode Geoconsult Limited is geared towards availing open source and open data to everyone. Success under this project will be achieved when at least 30 leaders inclusive of village leaders, district extension officers, and civil society organizations are effectively using openly available GPS navigation apps to locate, navigate to local farms and populate the OSM in Mbeya city.
b) We intend to impact large number of women and youths – not less than 100 (more than 50 households) and empower them into mapping as they are the largest contributors to agricultural production.
c) We also want the local farmers and the community to get introduced to OpenStreetMap editing and collect the data so that we can have a database of the location of farm lands.
d) We are focusing on generating maps that depict the farm boundaries of the areas where we are currently operating and the existing infrastructures.
e) We also want to build a community of dedicated mappers based in Mbeya city in Mbeya region since it is less mapped on OpenStreetMap. This will be done by conducting a series of training on OpenStreetMap editing.
What are your project long-term goals?
(Please describe your project vision. This can include: where you see your project in five years' time, how you want your data to be used, future partnerships you'd like to establish, or how you would like your project to grow (or not!). We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words)
a) To map agricultural activities in all the largest producing regions in Tanzania by 2025
b) To form collaborations with NGOs working in Agriculture to map all the agriculture value chains on OSM and improve on other agriculture systems such as yield analyses and marketing using web GIS capabilities.
List the tools you intend to use during your project and why
(Please describe which tools you plan to use to collect, update, clean, or store you data and why. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
During this project, we intend to use a number of tools that include;
a) Maps.me, locate, navigate, find, and cheaply, and effectively.
b) OSMand: This is an android based mobile application that is used to visualize OpenStreetMap data in offline mode, used for navigation, planning trips, and to make track of the trips.
c) Open Data Kit. This is a mobile-based open-source tool that will be used to collect field data.
d) ID Editor. This is a web-based OpenStreetMap editing tool that can be used to contribute to OpenStreetMap.
e) JOSM. Java OpenStreetMap Editor is a desktop tool that is used to edit and validate OpenStreetMap data. During the training workshops, all members will be trained in the use of ID Editor and JOSM to contribute to OpenStreetMap.
What additional knowledge or skills do you need to improve the effectiveness of the project?
(if there is any addition training you will need example how to use open source tools ,how to write good report etc please identify them below and why, We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) If none, write N/A
We would appreciate help in the areas of government and local community engagement. We believe that success of this project largely depends on positive participation and reception by both the government and the community. We also understand and expect these two areas to raise most challenges for our project. Therefore we would like to be well aware of how to deal with them to avoid and curb these challenges.
Explain how you plan to share your stories
(Please give examples of how you will use to share your stories with others. This can include: how you will publicise your news, where you will collect media content, how you will use social media channels, and if you will reach out beyond your immediate network to share your stories. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
The progress and success of our project will be shared through a number of platforms that include but not limited to the following;
a) Social media. We shall be sharing training session updates through our social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
b) Reports to the local Authorities
c) We shall create a blog post that will be published on our social media as well as the Website.
Ownership
Describe who will own/access and use the data
(It is important that the data you generate during the project is useful, and that it will be used to advance humanitarian and/or development challenges locally. In this section, please include: if the data you will be collecting has been requested by who , if there is an established formal relationship with any organization , and if there is an existing MoU between you and the partnering organisation, and how long have you been working with the partnering organisation. If your organisation or community is going to be the data user, please describe how will they use the data, and how they will access the data also is there possibility of other similar organizations to access and own the data . We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 400 words.)
The data that will be generated from our project will be shared and owned by the community. We do not have any prior agreements with any organizations to access and own our data, but the data will be openly available to the entire community on OSM. However, apart from sharing the data on OSM, our project results will be shared on organizations that work with and support smallholder farmers.
Describe any other community/organization you plan to approach and share data for the purpose of the project impact
(In this section, please describe any additional partners you might be working with or share data with since they have indicated the need of data that will be collected. If there are no additional partners (beyond the data user) this must be stated here. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) if none write N/A
The data generated from the project will be mapped on OSM, and we plan to share this data with organizations working to support smallholder farmers and advocate for agricultural transformations. These organizations are the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) and its member organizations that engage directly with farmers. Since we plan on working directly with local organizations, they will have access to the data. We also plan on working with the government through its local government authorities; these will also have direct access to the data collected. The extension officers are in great need of such data to inform them of the existing situation and help them plan for the future as well as be able to predict yield. Agriculture data is vital as it informs the nation’s food status as well as the nutrition levels and dangers thereof. We want our project to be as impactful as possible; to the local farmers, their organizations, and the nation as a whole. We want our project to set off the mapping of agricultural activities on OSM and lead to open data availability.
Inclusion
How will you ensure that your project activities will consider gender/children?
(Please describe how you will engage women/girls and school children in your project activities. Please include the number of women, girls or marginalized groups you plan to work with and how, and at which point in your activities you plan to engage them. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words).
Our project activities are all-around inclusive because we are working with district women farmers and local community at large. We, therefore, want to recruit and train these groups and local community. Women and youth will be given a special consideration in this project, so that they emerge the largest project beneficiaries. Women make up the largest part of the workforce engaged in agriculture, so we deem it impactful to the agriculture community if they are the largest beneficiaries.
Sensitization campaigns will be offered to even community members that may not be able to make it physically to the workshop venues. This would be achieved through the use of ad hoc public announcements (PAs) sharing the information and through the use of extension officers. The extension officers usually visit farmers for consultation and monitoring, through impacting our knowledge to these officers, we believe they will in turn share it to their farmers.
Open Knowledge Evolution
Explain how you plan to expand your mapping community
(In this section, please include: your approach of working in a peripheral area to expand the knowledge, how will you engage new members from an unexposed community, how many new members you plan to recruit, and how will you retain community members throughout the duration of the project and beyond. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
Tanzania is endowed with vast arable land, and its people engage in agriculture on a larger scale. Again, statistics show that about 80% of the population employed in agriculture are women. This means that our project could be easily scaled up and will touch a large number of women. Our mapping community will grow in the peripherals since those are the areas that mostly practice agriculture. In those areas where local organizations supporting smallholder farmers already exist, the project will train them how to use open-source tools for mapping, and the importance of mapping their agricultural activities. For such areas with no established local organizations supporting farmers, efforts will be made through collaborations with extension officers and village leaders to form groups of people who will champion the mapping activity. These will be trained and given tools for mapping. For the sake of the sustainability of the project and to ensure that it covers a larger area, the champions who will be deemed ready and fit to train others will be allowed to share that knowledge so that it reaches more people and more groups. Where necessary, the mapping activities and mapping communities will be established at the village level and even the hamlet (Kitongoji) level. During this entire process, the project team will be working hand in hand with extension officers and village leaders to ensure that the project is successful and quality is assured.
Cooperation
Describe the communities you are already working with
(This may include local government, private sector, institutions or OSM communities (as examples). If you are not already working with any of the above communities, please state this and explain how you plan to work with other communities in your project. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
We are currently not working with any community. Since our project is expected to engage local communities in data collection and mapping, we will train them to understand the concepts of mapping and how they will conduct mapping by themselves even after our project. Since we expect to map the agricultural activities on OSM, we hope that the mapping activity will be effective if the smallholder farmers can map their activities on OSM.
Describe other communities you plan to approach, or establish relationships with, for the purpose of the project
(We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
The data generated from the project will be mapped on OSM, and we plan to share this data with organizations working to support smallholder farmers and advocate for agricultural transformations. These organizations are for example the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) and its member organizations that engage directly with farmers. Since we plan on working directly with local organizations, they will have access to the data. These organizations include also research institutions such as Tanzania Research Institutes (TARI) and others that support smallholder farmers.
Supporting Documents
Please share a PDF version of your proposed budget
(Your budget must be detailed and realistic. The calculations should be correct, and budget lines should reflect with the activities detailed in the project plan. You must provide an explanation of why you need the item that you’re budgeting for. By using this budget template https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LYNfZLQqpD6j1NexI4i8tCscIPxiBdnarXIudplE/edit?usp=sharing make sure you write the name of the project as your budget name name)
Please share a PDF version of your proposed project plan
(The project plan must be realistic, and must provide a detailed timeline for the activities outlined in your application. We recommend that you articulate your activities succinctly and clearly align the activities with your project description and your budget. By using this working plan template https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ETbSEoqzaol4fVVOjV4P89Y2WCMPqCMWgzhXtPG4j8/edit?usp=sharing make sure you write the name of the project as your work plan name)
Submission
If applicable, please provide a link to your organization's website
If applicable, please provide a link to your organization's/community Facebook account
Deocode Geoconsult
If applicable, please provide a link to your organization's/community Twitter account
DeocodeL
Will this grant co-fund an already established project?
No
Please confirm that you have checked your application, and answered the questions to the best of your ability
Yes - I'd like to submit my application