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there were fewer cloud cover problems, 
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thirty eight segments were available, 
and the ground data were better. It is thus expected that the C.V. 
Alberta part of the Peace River District will be lower. 
Other outputs of the project include the development and testing of a 
procedure which is both fast and efficient (see Table 2), the training of two 
Statistics Canada professional staff, and the generation of a ground, airborne 
and satellite data set which will be useful in further R&D studies. 
As a result of the success of the 1980 and 1981 projects for potatoes 
(Ryerson et al., 1981) and Canola/rapeseed, plans are being made for 1982 to 
extend the methods to both crops in a much larger area using many more segments 
involving areas in five of Canada's ten provinces. 
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND TRAINING 
Technology transfer and training began at the start of the various 
projects. The first step was to ensure that the eventual users of the 
technology and the remote sensing scientists (and their respective staff) 
shared a common understanding and vocabulary. After this understanding was 
reached and joint planning began, formal agreements between the user and remote 
sensing agencies helped establish the level and nature of support, and to 
itemize any risks. 
By the time formal agreements were concluded, detailed joint planning 
including costs, timing and responsibilities of respective staff had largely 
been completed. The planning stage afforded an opportunity to exchange 
‚information and to involve all participants from federal and provincial 
governments in remote sensing and traditional crop area estimation procedures 
before the urgency of analysis under tight deadlines. 
As the user agency staff gained familiarity with the remote sensing 
technology, they were gradually introduced to the operation of the analysis 
system. This early stage of work on the analysis system is critical. T£ 
training is done thoroughly, with attention to the user's needs, the balance of 
the work will proceed smoothly. Based on the experience in the projects 
conducted to date, it is recommended that following familiarization there 
should be a short formal workshop followed by intensive hands-on experience. A 
course or training in photo-interpretation would also be most useful for those 
doing the analysis. (Staff involved in the projects have taken such a course.) 
A final problem in technology transfer/training was closely related to 
communication within the project. The difficulty arose from the fact that the 
project relied on inputs from scores of individuals doing interview -training, 
questionnaire design, preparation of interview packages, maps, etc. Others 
provided the timely satellite data and had to make decisions on quality of 
satellite data, scheduling of production, etc. Although most of these 
individuals were not part of the project team, their inputs were crucial to the 
project's success. A certain degree of training and explanation was therefore 
necessary for these individuals to appreciate the importance of their 
respective roles. It was found that explanatory material derived for this 
support group by the remote sensing specialists was often too complex and this 
task has therefore been assumed by those in the user agency who have been 
involved with the work from the outset. This experience highlights the need 
for information to be properly targeted for it to be useful. 
A final comment on communication related to technology transfer takes the 
form of a recommendation: the initial project plan should ensure that all 
participants are kept informed. Information to be produced from this project 
was planned to be on several levels to meet the needs of the participants, the 
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