In 1996 ARC initiated a project on Utilization of Agroecological Zones Database and Installation of GIS for Agricultural Development with support from UNDP and FAO.The main objective was to create a National Agricultural Land
Information System Database in GIS environment to fulfil the agricultural planning and research needs. The project had a
GIS setup with ARC/INFO, ArcView and IDRISI as the key GIS software. An important activity was to convert the Land
Resources Inventory (LRI) and non-spatial AEZ database into spatial GIS/AEZ database. GIS based crop or cropping pattern suitability database has been developed based on the improved models and data. A GIS based decision support system (DSS) has been developed using cropping pattern suitability and socio-economic factors to assist in agricultural planning and research.