Journal archives for February 2021

February 12, 2021

Adding files from fieldwork

I have two hard drives (1TB and 2TB) full of images from the fieldwork in Uganda in 2013 through to 2016.
I'd quite like to make these open access and give other researchers the chance to peruse and assess this data (there are a number of questions that I was not able to explore and species that were not fully identified). Currently I am in the process of making this happen but am surprised at how painstakingly slow and tedious this is. I have uploaded some 300 images and it took me the better part of two evenings (skipped my evening Netflix binge of 'Rick and Morty' just for this).

I am convinced that iNaturalist is the right platform for these observations and that the regions where I collected these data stand to be informed (lots of blank spots on species distribution maps in the places where I worked). It would be great if there were a way to fast-track these data to the iNaturalist web interface. I have a powerful machine and often run big models without issue so I am pretty sure that the issue is not on my end.

As I said this is previous fieldwork and we have already explored this data and also used it to update models and policy advice. Some of the main conclusions are outlined in these papers:

Whitney, Cory. “Agrobiodiversity and Nutrition in Traditional Cropping Systems - Homegardens of the Indigenous Bakiga and Banyakole in Southwestern Uganda.” PhD Thesis, University of Kassel, 2018. Kobra (University of Kassel’s Repository und Archive).

Whitney, Cory, Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Ethnobotany and Agrobiodiversity; Valuation of Plants in the Homegardens of Southwestern Uganda.” Ethnobiology Letters 9, no. 2 (2018): 90–100. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.503.

Whitney, Cory, Joseph Bahati, and Jens Gebauer. “Value of Plants in Ugandan Homegardens; Results of Homegardens Inventories and Participatory Ethnobotany Investigations.” In Botany 2015: Science and Plants for People, 1792. July 25-29: Botanical Society of America, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, J. Gebauer, Antonia Nyamukuru, and K. Kehlenbeck. “Food Security and Traditional Farming Systems; a Case Study of Homegardens in Southwestern Uganda.” In Tropentag 2015: Management of Land Use Systems for Enhanced Food Security: Conflicts, Controversies and Resolutions, edited by Tielkes. E, 245–46. Berlin, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, D. Lanzanova, Keith Shepherd, and Eike Luedeling. “Nutritional Impacts of Transitioning from Homegardens to Industrial Farms in Uganda.” In Tropentag 2017: Future Agriculture: Socio-Ecological Transitions and Bio-Cultural Shifts, edited by E. Tielkes, 275. Bonn, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2017.

Whitney, Cory, Eike Luedeling, Oilver Hensel, John R. S. Tabuti, Michael Krawinkel, Jens Gebauer, and Katja Kehlenbeck. “The Role of Homegardens for Food and Nutrition Security in Uganda.” Human Ecology 46, no. 4 (2018): 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0008-9.

Whitney, Cory, Eike Luedeling, John R. S. Tabuti, Antonia Nyamukuru, Oliver Hensel, Jens Gebauer, and Katja Kehlenbeck. “Crop Diversity in Homegardens of Southwest Uganda and Its Importance for Rural Livelihoods.” Agriculture and Human Values 35, no. 2 (2018): 399–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9835-3.

Whitney, Cory, A. Nyamukuru, Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Local Knowledge for Food Security in Uganda; Postharvest Practices in Homegardens of the Ugandan Southwest.” In The First International Congress on Postharvest Loss Prevention, Rome, October 2015, 62–63. October 4-7: ADM Institute, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, John R.S. Tabuti, Oliver Hensel, Ching-hua Yeh, Jens Gebauer, and Eike Luedeling. “Homegardens and the Future of Food and Nutrition Security in Southwest Uganda.” Agricultural Systems 154 (2017): 133–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.009.

Posted on February 12, 2021 12:07 PM by human_ecologist human_ecologist | 3 comments | Leave a comment

February 16, 2021

Uganda's homegardens

I am attempting to load some of the images from my fieldwork in the homegardens of Uganda. The process is very slow and messy and I appreciate all the feedback and corrections from the iNaturalist community. There are several terabytes of data and most of it has associated files of species names and ethnobotany data such as medicinal uses etc. However, I seem to make the system crash just by dropping collections of files on the upload page and cannot work out how to associate data to image files. Looks like this is going to be rather manual process.

I am hopeful that there is still a lot to learn from these observations and data. My co-authors and I have already explored it for updating models and making policy advice. Some of the main conclusions are outlined in these papers and thesis work:

Whitney, Cory. “Agrobiodiversity and Nutrition in Traditional Cropping Systems - Homegardens of the Indigenous Bakiga and Banyakole in Southwestern Uganda.” PhD Thesis, University of Kassel, 2018. Kobra (University of Kassel’s Repository und Archive).

Whitney, Cory, Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Ethnobotany and Agrobiodiversity; Valuation of Plants in the Homegardens of Southwestern Uganda.” Ethnobiology Letters 9, no. 2 (2018): 90–100. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.503.

Whitney, Cory, Joseph Bahati, and Jens Gebauer. “Value of Plants in Ugandan Homegardens; Results of Homegardens Inventories and Participatory Ethnobotany Investigations.” In Botany 2015: Science and Plants for People, 1792. July 25-29: Botanical Society of America, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, J. Gebauer, Antonia Nyamukuru, and K. Kehlenbeck. “Food Security and Traditional Farming Systems; a Case Study of Homegardens in Southwestern Uganda.” In Tropentag 2015: Management of Land Use Systems for Enhanced Food Security: Conflicts, Controversies and Resolutions, edited by Tielkes. E, 245–46. Berlin, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, D. Lanzanova, Keith Shepherd, and Eike Luedeling. “Nutritional Impacts of Transitioning from Homegardens to Industrial Farms in Uganda.” In Tropentag 2017: Future Agriculture: Socio-Ecological Transitions and Bio-Cultural Shifts, edited by E. Tielkes, 275. Bonn, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2017.

Whitney, Cory, Eike Luedeling, Oilver Hensel, John R. S. Tabuti, Michael Krawinkel, Jens Gebauer, and Katja Kehlenbeck. “The Role of Homegardens for Food and Nutrition Security in Uganda.” Human Ecology 46, no. 4 (2018): 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0008-9.

Whitney, Cory, Eike Luedeling, John R. S. Tabuti, Antonia Nyamukuru, Oliver Hensel, Jens Gebauer, and Katja Kehlenbeck. “Crop Diversity in Homegardens of Southwest Uganda and Its Importance for Rural Livelihoods.” Agriculture and Human Values 35, no. 2 (2018): 399–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9835-3.

Whitney, Cory, A. Nyamukuru, Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Local Knowledge for Food Security in Uganda; Postharvest Practices in Homegardens of the Ugandan Southwest.” In The First International Congress on Postharvest Loss Prevention, Rome, October 2015, 62–63. October 4-7: ADM Institute, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, John R.S. Tabuti, Oliver Hensel, Ching-hua Yeh, Jens Gebauer, and Eike Luedeling. “Homegardens and the Future of Food and Nutrition Security in Southwest Uganda.” Agricultural Systems 154 (2017): 133–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.009.

Posted on February 16, 2021 05:25 PM by human_ecologist human_ecologist | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Making this a project about 'useful' plants

I'd quite like to restrict this to plant observations for which there is use data.
Any feedback about how to make that possible is very welcome.

iNaturalist's guidance on making project collections seems to include the idea that the specific criteria can be part of the collection but i have not yet worked out how to make that happen:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/managing-projects

The Amazing Aberrants project has a collection of very specific observation criteria but I expect that the curation is quite manual there since only 'Traditional projects' can require Observation Fields.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/amazing-aberrants

Posted on February 16, 2021 07:55 PM by human_ecologist human_ecologist | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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