Led by IFPRI senior researcher Stanley Wood, the CGIAR’s Consortium for Spatial Information(CGIAR CSI), which brings together geospatial researchers—those who gather, analyze and synthesize map-based data—from IFPRI’s 14 sister centers, will have major representation at a leading geographic information systems (GIS) event.

The week-long Esri International User Conference in San Diego (July 11-15) will draw around 14,000 GIS experts and users from around the globe to discuss the application of GIS software to a wide range of fields—from national security to agricultural development. The CGIAR is being showcased in a special conference theme on environmental sustainability.
CGIAR CSI will host an information booth and lead five sessions. The sessions include: Climate Change and Agriculture: Assessing Impact and Adaptation Options; Intercomparison of Spatial Datasets: Implications for Agricultural Research; High Resolution Imagery for Smallholders: the Backbone of Next Generation Agricultural Information Systems; Facing reality in developing countries: Working with research partners with limited resources; and Spatial downscaling/disaggregation of datasets for food security analysis.

Wood also heads IFPRI’s HarvestChoice program, which generates knowledge products to help guide strategic investments to improve the well-being of poor smallholders families in sub-Saharan Africa through more productive and profitable farming. He is joined in San Diego by other HarvestChoice and IFPRI researchers Jawoo Koo, Zhe Guo, Jose Funes, and Susana Crespo.