Pacific Soils Portal (PSP)

Developed by Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, the Pacific Soils Portal is a web based digital initiative which provides information and knowledge on Pacific soils, their health and uses for Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu. It provides policy makers and farmers with the information, knowledge and advice to grow crops that are best suited to their soils. The PSP contains information such as 1) find map reports of location and whereabouts of different soils 2) information about the role different soil types play 3) crop suitability and matching crops to soils 4) Sustainable soil nutrient management 5) Background information on soil formation and 6) Resources (soil reports, maps, publications and useful contacts).

Lead (category)

Multi-partners

Name of initiative lead (and partners)

Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research (MWLR)#Pacific Community’s Land Resources Division (SPC-LRD)

Categories of Digital initiative deliverables

Specific ICT technology product and/or service delivery

ICT products/solutions and services by category

Digital Rural Services

Digital Agriculture

Non ICT products and services (deliverables)

Business and governance structure

It started as a collaboration between Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research (MWLR) and the Pacific Community’s Land Resources Division (SPC-LRD) and was endorsed by the Heads of Government Departments from 23 PICTs at Heads of Agriculture and Forestry Services (HoAFS). More recently it was supported by the Pacific Soil Partnership which united New Zealand, Australia, and 15 PICTs as a regional node of the FAO Global Soil Partnership (GSP - http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/en/). This support lead to a 3-year project “Soil management for resilient agriculture in Pacific Islands funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), lead by CSIRO with collaborators from MWLR, SPC-LRD and five PICTs (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and Tuvalu) that included funding to develop and release this Pacific Soils Portal.

DI ICT-deliverables format

Web-based platform

Mobile applications

Primary stakeholders (beneficiaries, actors, enablers)

Farmers

Government

Agribusiness / private organization

Extension agents

Size, scale or scope of primary stakeholders

Digital Initiative development Stage

Fully functional. Institutional-governance structure in place

Measurable impacts on primary stakeholders and target beneficiaries

Initiative geographic scope (or coverage) (national, regional, sector specific, specific user co-horts etc)

Regional

Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and Tuvalu

On-line resource links (Web-page links, links to videos, links to reports, etc)

Main DI webpage

Other useful link

Link to Digital village

Link to Digital solution