Mapping for Sustainable Development
Kasarani, Nairobi, Kenya
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The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources (RCMRD) through the SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa Project (SERVIR E&SA), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is working with governments in application of Earth Observation information for crop conditions monitoring through expansion of crop monitors. This was in recognition of the gap in availability of rapid assessment reports on crop conditions for multi-level food security decision making, despite government ministries of agriculture collecting a lot of information.

In view of this, the RCMRD team In collaboration with the University  of  Maryland (UMD),  held a five-day National Crop Monitor Training between June 16 and 20, 2022 in Adama, Ethiopia to train and support the national champions from the Ministry of Agriculture, Central Statistics Agency, and Meteorological Department on how to use Earth Observation tools for assessing crop condition and develop their monthly reporting bulletin. The government ministries of agriculture learn to customize, implement, synthesize and develop timely and more accurate crop conditions reports by combining satellite information with other data sources (National reporting systems, field data). This improves crop conditions reporting timeliness and accuracy necessary for informed and prompt decision making in the face of emergencies, food insecurity and planning requirements for agricultural markets.

The training focused on web-based applications including the new GLAM 2.0 which has new functions such as selecting from a variety of cropland and crop type masks to target relevant croplands for monitoring vegetation condition using NDVI, EWX application for exploration of geospatial data related to drought monitoring such as rainfall from CHIRPS and the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor system which is designed to provide a public good of open, timely, science-driven information on crop conditions.

The Crop Monitor is part of Group on Earth  Observations  Global  Agricultural  Monitoring (GeoGLAM) initiative. The initiative aims to strengthen global agricultural monitoring by improving the use of remote sensing tools for crop production projections and weather forecasting. The initiative contributes to generating reliable, accurate, timely and sustained crop monitoring  information  and  yield  forecasts  at  global,  regional  and  national  scales.  The information in the report originates from national and district reports from agricultural extension agents combined with earth observation data providing information such as greenness indices, rainfall  and soil moisture. The national  crop  monitor portal provides  a central location  for collecting and consolidating information from the contributing sources at National and District level and provides tools for synthesizing the data into usable information.

Some of the Ethiopian Agricultural Officers equipped with skills on crop conditions assessment during the RCMRD/SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa (SERVIR E&SA workshop.

During the training the team reviewed the just-ended Belg season and compared the same with other years using GLAM 2.0 and EWX. The trainees were happy that they could make an assessment using satellite data using web-based platforms, then incorporate their local knowledge from the field about what is happening in the region for a more informed analysis and reporting on crop conditions in the different regions of Ethiopia. 

Following this effort, several observations were made: “In the last five days, we have have seen the need and importance for Analysis Ready Data platforms e.g. the GLAM, EWX and Crop Monitor for accurate monitoring of agricultural conditions and discovering negative changes in crop condition that can severely impact local populations’ food security as well as market stability” Esayas Lemma Hayi Director, Crop Development Directorate at Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia said.

“EWX was fascinating for me, I was able to monitor the rainfall patterns for the Somali region where I come from and noticed how rainfall for the MAM season has failed similar to what happened in 1984. I was able to download the graph from the system and incorporate it in my report that was shared with my regional director.” Abdi Aden, Crop Director Somali region 

“Crop monitor reports are being used for early warning for food security planning. This information has been used to distribute livestock feeds in the Diredawa region during this year's Belg season, which failed.” Shemesedine Ahmed, Crop Director Diredawa region

The landing page of the crop monitor bulletin.

The Crop Monitor is part of Group on Earth  Observations  Global  Agricultural  Monitoring (GeoGLAM) initiative. The initiative aims to strengthen global agricultural monitoring by improving the use of remote sensing tools for crop production projections and weather forecasting. The initiative contributes to generating reliable, accurate, timely and sustained crop monitoring  information  and  yield  forecasts  at  global,  regional  and  national  scales.  The information in the report originates from national and district reports from agricultural extension agents combined with earth observation data providing information such as greenness indices, rainfall  and soil moisture. The national  crop  monitor portal provides  a central location  for collecting and consolidating information from the contributing sources at National and District level and provides tools for synthesizing the data into usable information.

The training focused on web based applications including the new GLAM 2.0

By Stephen Sande, Dr. Majambo Jarumani, Dorah Nesoba, Joseph Murage and Dr. Robinson Mugo

†SERVIR is joint initiative of NASA, USAID, and leading geospatial organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, SERVIR partners with countries and organizations in these regions to address critical challenges in climate change, food security, water and related disasters, land use, and air quality. Using satellite data and geospatial technology, SERVIR co-develops innovative solutions through a network of regional hubs to improve resilience and sustainable resource management at local, national and regional scales.


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Roysambu, Kasarani
Nairobi, Kenya

+254 020 2680748 / 2680722
+254 723 786161 / +254 735 981098

 

P.O. Box 632-00618 Nairobi, Kenya

rcmrd@rcmrd.org

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