In 1996 ARC initiated a project on Utilization of Agro-ecological 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)