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Presentation Outline

SCAA 17^th^ Annual Conference and Exhibition

Marketing, Appellation & Traceability: How Can Web

Map Services and ICT Tools Help?

**The GeoCafe Project**

By:

**Eric van Praag**, USGS National Center for EROS

**Christian Rasch**, [National Coffee Association of Guatemala
(ANACAFE)](http://portal.anacafe.org/)

**Amadeo Escarramán**, Dominican Republic Institute for Agricultural and
Forestry Research (IDIAF)

**Introduction to the GeoCafe project\
**

![](media/image2.png){width="3.5208333333333335in"
height="2.1840277777777777in"}The GeoCafe project is part of the
USAID-funded Quality Coffee Program (QCP), an initiative currently
assisting the specialty coffee sectors in Central America and the
Dominican Republic. The GeoCafe is implemented by the USGS National
Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) and partner
agencies in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. The
project is developing innovative on-line knowledge and information tools
in support of coffee production, certification, and marketing. The
applications developed include internet map servers that provide access
to a rich variety of information on coffee farms, cooperatives, mills,
roasters, and associated spatial data. Users don't need special software
to access and use the GeoCafe tools; they can view, overlay, and query
datasets of coffee-related information on-line.

**GeoCafe Partners**

The development of the GeoCafe project has been possible thanks to the
support of the following agencies:

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| **Main Participating Agencies**:  | **Other** **Collaborators:**      |
|                                   |                                   |
| > [Dominican Republic Institute   | > [Chem                           |
| > for Agriculture and Forestry    | onics](http://www.chemonics.com/) |
| > Research                        | >                                 |
| > (                               | > [Coffee Quality Institute       |
| IDIAF)](http://www.idiaf.org.do/) | > (CQI)]                          |
| >                                 | (http://www.coffeeinstitute.org/) |
| > [National Coffee Association of | >                                 |
| > Guatemala                       | > [Conservation International     |
| > (ANAC                           | > (C                              |
| AFE)](http://portal.anacafe.org/) | I)](http://www.conservation.org/) |
| >                                 | >                                 |
| > National Coffee Council of the  | > [El Salvador Ministry of        |
| > Dominican Republic (CODOCAFE)   | > Agriculture                     |
| >                                 | > (MAG)](http://www.mag.gob.sv/)  |
| > [National Coffee Institute of   | >                                 |
| > Costa Rica                      | > Hondurean Ministry of           |
| >                                 | > Agriculture                     |
| (ICAFE)](http://www.icafe.go.cr/) | >                                 |
| >                                 | > [International Center for       |
| > [Tropical Agricultural Research | > Tropical Agriculture            |
| > and Higher Education Center     | > (C                              |
| >                                 | IAT)](http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/) |
| (CATIE)](http://www.catie.ac.cr/) | >                                 |
| >                                 | > [Nicaraguan Ministry of         |
| > [U.S. Agency for International  | > Agriculture and Forestry        |
| > Development                     | > (MA                             |
| > (USAID)](http://www.usaid.gov/) | GFOR)](http://www.magfor.gob.ni/) |
| >                                 | >                                 |
| > USGS National Center for Earth  | > [PROMECAFE](                    |
| > Resources Observation and       | http://www.iica.org.gt/promecafe) |
| > Science (EROS)                  | >                                 |
|                                   | > [Rainforest Alliance            |
|                                   | > (RA)](htt                       |
|                                   | p://www.rainforest-alliance.org/) |
|                                   | >                                 |
|                                   | > [Specialty Coffee Association   |
|                                   | > of America                      |
|                                   | > (SCAA)](http://www.scaa.org/)   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

**Project Objectives**

-   ![](media/image3.jpeg){width="3.6458333333333335in"
    height="2.3048611111111112in"}Facilitate access to information over
    the Internet on the production, processing, and marketing of coffee.

-   Assist coffee producers to establish direct contact with buyers and
    obtain premium prices for their quality coffee.

-   Promote the establishment of mechanisms that facilitate coffee
    monitoring and trace-back.

-   Assist in the delimitation of geographic areas that will form the
    basis of appellation systems.

-   Provide training to partner agencies on the use of new technologies
    for the generation and management of spatial information.

-   Provide training to industry representatives on 3D maps show in
    light brown the coffee areas in Antigua, Guatemala\
    the use of the Internet as a source of information\
    and as a marketing and communications tool

**Methodology**

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="3.3958333333333335in"
height="2.5395833333333333in"}Coffee farms, cooperatives, and mills are
precisely mapped with GPS devices or using aerial photos. A variety of
data are collected for each entity, ranging from geographic and climatic
farm conditions and socio-economic data to production information,
harvesting periods, and certification issues. The data are integrated
into databases, converted to digital maps for on-line visualization, and
displayed together with other existing and newly generated spatial
datasets such as protected areas, forest cover, shaded-relief,
topography, hydrography, cities and towns, and river basins.

National agencies collect the data and put together\
the GeoCafe pieces, while EDC and CATIE provide

technical assistance, know-how, guidance, and Aerial photo of West
Valley (Costa Rica). Polygon delimits a single farm

coordination. For two years, 2004 and 2005, EDC

will assist partner agencies build and maintain these information
systems in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Once the
project is over, partner agencies are left with the tools needed to keep
the national GeoCafe applications alive: the source code, the know-how,
the hardware and software, and trained personnel.

**What type of questions can the GeoCafe help answer?**

Given the wide array of datasets and complex variables that a GeoCafe
system can operate with, the number of questions it can help answer can
be considerable, and it will vary by country, depending on how much
information is feed into the system. Some of the most common questions
it can help answer are:

-   What areas are planted with coffee in my country?

-   ![](media/image5.png){width="3.3958333333333335in"
    height="3.0055555555555555in"}How much coffee could be produced next
    year in a certain area?

-   Who produces a certain coffee quality?

-   Where does a specific coffee batch comes from?

-   Was this coffee I purchased produced in a sustainable way?

-   Which farms sell coffee to a particular cooperative?

-   Which coffee farms are located in the buffer zone of a national
    park?

-   How much protection does coffee "forests" offer to a key national
    watershed?

-   Which coffee farms are located in areas not suitable for specialty
    coffee production?

> GeoCafe showing farms in the Central Cordillera of the Dominican
> Republic located above 1,200 meters (yellow dots) and their tabular
> data.

**The GeoCafe in Guatemala**

![](media/image6.png){width="3.2159722222222222in"
height="3.5208333333333335in"}

ANACAFE has developed, over the last three years, detailed coffee
geospatial products for the area of Antigua, a well known coffee
producing region. The GeoCafe project has helped ANACAFE to complete the
coffee data collection in Antigua, to expand to new geographic areas of
the country (e.g., Huehuetenango), and to produce a wide array of new
geospatial products. The GeoCafe has been instrumental in producing a
national map of coffee producing areas (using Landsat data), national
elevation derivatives, as well as maps that depict the environmental
services offered by coffee "forests".

ANACAFE has collected detailed georeferenced information for more than
2,000 farms in the Antigua region, together with national information on
cooperatives, wet and dry mills. All information will be made available
in a GeoCafe application open to the public.

> GeoCafe map shows the specialty coffee regions of Guatemala overlaid
> over a 3D model of the country

**The GeoCafe in Costa Rica**

![](media/image7.jpeg){width="3.6180555555555554in"
height="2.475in"}ICAFE, the National Coffee Institute of Costa Rica, has
been a pioneer in the development of coffee internet map servers. In
2002, using its own internal resources, ICAFE was one of the first
coffee agencies in the world to produce a reliable estimate of the
national area dedicated to coffee. It accomplished this task with the
support of CATIE, whom ICAFE contracted to map the national coffee areas
using aerial photos.

The GeoCafe project has supported new coffee mapping using more recent
aerial photos to calculate change in selected coffee areas as a response
to recent price changes, the improvement of ICAFE's geoserver
capacities, and the characterization of ICAFE's previously defined 3D
aerial photo of Tarrazu, Costa Rica, with some coffee indicated by red
dots

coffee zones

**The GeoCafe in the Dominican Republic**

![](media/image8.jpeg){width="3.6222222222222222in"
height="2.716666666666667in"}The Dominican Republic was one of the first
countries to try out the GeoCafe approach. During 2002, and with
financial support from the USAID Mission in the Dominican Republic,
IDIAF and CODOCAFE - with support from EROS - established a prototype
GeoCafe application featuring more than 2,000 farms from three specialty
coffee regions. With new funding from the USAID QCP, the GeoCafe project
is now expanding and deepening this line of work. More than 7,000 farms,
plus all the national coffee cooperatives, industrial wet mills, and dry
mills will be precisely mapped during the period 2004 -- 2005.

Together with Costa Rica and Guatemala, the Dominican Republic has been
one of the first 3D map of the Dominican Republic with areas suitable
for specialty coffee

countries in Latin America to obtain 30-meter

resolution elevation derivatives produced from the Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission (SRTM) global dataset. These high resolution maps of
rivers, watersheds, hill shade, slope, and aspect offer a tremendous
opportunity to conduct spatial analysis for the coffee sector, and are
useful for general decision making for development.

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| **For more information, please    | **And visit:**                    |
| contact:**                        |                                   |
|                                   | <htt                              |
| Eric van Praag,                   | p://edcintl.cr.usgs.gov/geocafe/> |
| <vanpraag@usgs.gov>               |                                   |
|                                   | <http://si                        |
| Larry Tieszen, <tieszen@usgs.gov> | gicafe.icafe.go.cr/Sig_icafe.htm> |
|                                   |                                   |
| Jeffrey Jones,                    | [http://www.dominicancoffee.com]  |
| <jjones@catie.ac.cr>              | (http://www.dominicancoffee.com/) |
|                                   |                                   |
| Luis Zamora,                      | <http://gis.anacafe.              |
| <lzamora@icafe.go.cr>             | org/website/guatemala/viewer.htm> |
|                                   |                                   |
| Alcides Morel,                    |                                   |
| <pamorel.proca2@verizon.net.do>   |                                   |
|                                   |                                   |
| Chistian Rasch,                   |                                   |
| <lizr@anacafe.org>                |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+