Policy brief: Assessing the need for establishing land, soil, and crop information hubs to support climate-smart agriculture in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda

Date: September 4, 2025    Author: Silvana Summa (ISRIC)

The LSC-IS project aims to create sustainable data hubs within national agricultural research organisations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda. To ensure these hubs are relevant and sustainable, the project started with a thorough needs assessment conducted across all three countries.

A policy brief, ‘Assessing the Need for Establishing Land, Soil, and Crop Information Hubs to Support Climate-Smart Agriculture in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda,’ has been released under the Land, Soil, and Crop Information Services (LSC-IS) to Support Climate-Smart Agriculture project.

The LSC-IS project aims to establish sustainable data hubs within national agricultural research organisations in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda.

To ensure that the hubs are relevant and sustainable, the project began with a comprehensive needs assessment across the three countries. The assessment identified:

  • Data and information needs of users;
  • Institutional and staff needs and expertise of the data provider;
  • Opportunities for collaboration among key stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

The needs assessment had two objectives:

  1. To assess the demand among stakeholders for land, soil, and crop knowledge and information; and
  2. To identify strategic, technical, operational, and institutional requirements to establish and maintain LSC hubs.

The findings from the assessment served as the foundation for defining user and system requirements, identifying capacity gaps, and determining institutional needs. Additionally, they contributed to the creation of an initial strategy for the integration, long-term maintenance, and sustainability of LSC hubs. The results also established a basis for a multi-stakeholder engagement process aimed at designing and developing the LSC hubs

This policy brief outlines the methodology, use cases, areas of interest, key findings, and recommendations of the needs assessment.

Learn more and download the policy brief.

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