Three PhilRootcrops staff attended the Training on Introduction to GIS and Web GIS Application for Enhanced Local and Environmental Governance on November 12-16, 2007 held at the Medical Transcription Room (High School Library), VSU. These included Engr. Alan B. Loreto, an agricultural engineer and the in-charge of VSU Webpage, Engr. Dale P. Loreto, a computer engineer and Engr. Ral-jie S. Managbanag, an agricultural engineer.

The training geared to enhance the knowledge on Geographic Information System (GIS) through a one-week intensive hands-on training on GIS mapping, operation of ARCVIEW GIS software and Web GIS applications. The resource persons were Dr. Pastor Garcia who currently handles the VSU GIS Services, and Mr. Eugene Ronney, GIS expert from the University of New Mexico in the United States.

The training culminated with the presentation of participants outputs. Engr. A. Loreto presented an interactive map of the sweetpotato germplasm and the photo documentation of the different sweetpotato accessions. Engr. D. Loreto and Engr. Managbanag's output was an application on the different tourist destinations of the city of Baybay. This training provided insights on the different applications of GIS to PhilRootcrops RDE activities such as areas over different agro-ecologies, rootcrop suitability map (overlay of soil fertility), technology dissemination / adoption areas with poverty status overlay, and others.