Remote sensing –Beyond images
Mexico 14-15 December 2013
The workshop was organized by CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), CGIAR Research Program on Maize, the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Sustainable Modernization of the Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro)
Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
Estimating crop biomass in smallholder fields with very high resolution imagery
1. P.S. Traore, S.S. Traore, K. Goita, W.M. Bostick, J. Koo
Estimating crop biomass
in smallholder fields with
very high resolution imagery
Remote Sensing – Beyond Images Workshop
Mexico City – 15 Dec. 2013
3. Possible intensification pathways
Large cities and
high rural densities
‘Bhoo Chetana
intensification
pathway’?
Large cities and
low rural densities
‘Fazenda
intensification
pathway’?
4. Opportunities in biomass production
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NoFertNoResidue
Human and animal population growth
Changes in dietary preferences
Crop-livestock integration
C sequestration
Bio-fuels
2009
2010
M9D3
Millet
Biomas
Yield
s
1450
5000
1130
7900
STAM 59A
Cotton
Yield
1300
1500
Biomass
2000
2700
CSM388
Sorghum
Biomas
Yield
s
1276
4880
1144
7680
PK + Residue
Obatanpa
Maize
Yield
2100
1800
Biomass
3900
3150
5. Challenges of biomass estimation
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Canopy height and optical signal saturation
Tropical cloud cover
Heterogeneous field size and geometries
Mixed crops and trees in fields
Spread of planting dates & phenologies
Heterogeneous soil properties at sub-field
scale & heterogenous stand conditions
Lack of historical calibration data
Lack of commercial seed systems
Dynamic inter-annual land
tenure / use & field
boundaries
16. Contour ridge tillage effects on NDVI
• 38 field pairs
monitored (same
catena class, same
farmer, contiguous,
trees removed)
• Stdev(NDVI) differs
in 82% of pairs (50% in
CRT fields)
• Mean NDVI differs in
87% of pairs (55% in CRT
fields)
17. Learnings
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Intra-specific variability in reflectance is larger than inter-specific
variability (time-specific, with exceptions)
Spatial uncertainty inherent to biomass predictions does not change
significantly from 2 to 30m resolution (time-specific)
RMSEP (DM) modestly decreases with model complexity
Cloud cover remains a major constraint to peak biomass acquisitions
Discriminating between cotton and cereals important for unbiased
landscape-scale biomass estimates
Tree management is independent of underlying crop type – tree mask
required for crop recognition
Stereoscopic (or lidar) monitoring of canopy height next quick & dirty
improvement for biomass estimates
Picture: Contour ridge with shea tree in Fansirakoro (Kolokani district, Koulikoro region, Mali)
Human and animal population growth:
By 2050 Nigeria will be 402-450M and 3d largest country by population
Changes in dietary preferences, driven by:
Urbanization
Rise of middle class
globalization
C sequestration:
Initial motivation behind work. Opportunity to change management practices with win-win situations
Bio-fuels:
Western West Africa on a ‘Fazenda’ intensification pathway? Eastern West Africa on a ‘Bhoochetana’ intensification pathway. Opportunities for sweet sorghums.
In Hausa tradition, when a baby is born, populations cut a tree. This little girl is now a young bride and may look at sorghum as an alternative fuel source
Systematize yield variability mapping
Ghana, Upper West Region - High fragmentation of land tenure – still large area uncultivated (low population density, ca. 25 hab.km-2) – mixed cropping very largely dominant – little to no animal traction – irregular field geometries not amenable to mechanization unless farms coalesce – extensification still more attractive
Mali, Cotton Belt - Similar agro-ecology to previous (850mm rainfall) - regular field geometries more amenable to mechanization – animal traction everywhere – long history of intensification (cotton belt) – almost only sole crops in triennal rotations
Reference to CerLiveTrees
Linkage to Full Biomass Asssessments
Participatory research tool
Food security profile: Mean Quantity of production and consumption for main crops in Farakoro and Kani per season .
For the two villages Maize is the most consumed crop. Production of vegetable is very marginal in the two villages for the population of households surveyed.
Data analyses and publications:
Forthcoming internal DSCRP report – outline currently being sketched out by Joachim and Manda
Potential publications to be generated before data is released in public domain in end 2014:
A.A. Ayantunde: first, identify research questions
A.A. Ayantunde: compare KKM and WBS transects based on the CRP Dryland hypothesis of different potential for intensification along the two transects
A.A. Ayantunde: results on external inputs use, household assets, crop-livestock integration can provide some guidance on the potential for intensification
Proposed next step: set up a task force for analysis and publication of HH survey results (I propose that A.A. Ayantunde leads that task force)
Picture: Young farmer identifying his fields on a QuickBird very high resolution image (Piisi, Wa, UWR, Ghana)