Karel Charvat contributed with following topics:
Policy or international initiatives
What can do EO for Food security
Global monitoring initiatives related to EO
Project focused on local monitoring in developing countries
Nairobi Hackathon conclusion
1. EO4AGRI Rome meeting
(Brussels, 13th June 2019)
EO4AGRI – T2.5 Food security
Karel Charvat
CoO
This project has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No [number]
www.EO4AGRI.eu
Bringing together the knowledge
for better Agriculture Monitoring
2. 2www.eo4agri.eu
Content
• Policy or international initiatives
• What can do EO for Food security
• Global monitoring initiatives related to EO
• Project focused on local monitoring in developing countries
• Nairobi Hackathon conclusion
3. 3www.eo4agri.eu
What can do EO for Food security
• Global food security monitoring
• Monitoring in developing countries
4. 4www.eo4agri.eu
Global food security monitoring
• Global production monitoring and food security systems for
analysis of food crisis
• Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition and promote
Sustainable agriculture
• food production will need to increase in a sustainable way by
at least 70% by 2030
• maximize high quality agricultural yields under increasingly
unstable environmental conditions.
• Environmental Monitoring Risks
• Agricultural Market Information System
5. 5www.eo4agri.eu
Policy or international initiatives
related to EO
• African Union Cooperation Arrangement with EU Copernicus
• ESA
• COPERNICUS services
• FAO
• GEO/GEOSS
• AfriGEOS
• GODAN – more focus on national implemenation
6. 6www.eo4agri.eu
AfriGEOSS
• Provide the necessary framework to initiate Africa focused mutual
activities within the scope of GEO;
• Coordinate and bring together stakeholders across Africa to reduce
duplication of efforts;
• Foster the participation of Africans in GEO by linking GEO activities
initiatives in Africa;
• Enhance Africa’s capability to access, use and manage EO for
informed decision making;
• Develop a strategy for accessing and disseminating Earth
observation data in Africa.
• Contribute to the implementation of the African Space Policy and
Strategy; and
• Advocate for the uptake of EO in decision making to realize the
African aspirations.
7. 7www.eo4agri.eu
AfriGEOSS
• User Needs and Applications: Initially focusing on:
• Food Security and Agriculture (through AfriGAM);
• Sustainable Forest Management;
• Water Resource Management (through AfriWRM);
• Sustainable Urban Planning and Growth;
• Land Cover for Africa (Working Group on Land Cover for Africa)
• AfriGEOSS Soil Moisture Mapping and Agricultural Outreach
Support Project.
8. 8www.eo4agri.eu
ESA Thematic Exploitation Platform
on Food Security (TEP-FS)
• The TEP-FS provides services and applications through a user
driven online platform. where the full power of Copernicus
Sentinel-1 and -2 satellites as well as additional datasets are
required.
9. 9www.eo4agri.eu
Copernicus
• Copernicus supports the forecasting and identification of food
security crises from space.
• The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service makes use of
satellite data to provide regular geo-spatial information on the
state of global vegetation and the water cycle, thereby
helping to pinpoint regions of potential food insecurity
• Various global biophysical variables related to the status of
vegetation and to global energy and water budgets
• Global soil properties, such as soil moisture
• Near-realtime maps, related to vegetative health, of Africa and
South America
10. 10www.eo4agri.eu
GEOGLAM
• GEOGLAM has a clear political mandate as it has been
launched by the G20 in 2011, together with the Agricultural
Market Information System (AMIS). And GEOGLAM has been
recently re-endorsed, in June 2016, during the meeting of the
G20Ministries of Agriculture, in Xi’an (China).
• And a proof that the Crop Monitor for AMIS is delivering what
was expected can be found in the decision taken by the AMIS
Secretariat in May 2016 to invite GEOGLAM to become its
eleventh member, together with institutions such as FAO,
World Bank, or OECD.
12. 12www.eo4agri.eu
Global Strategy
• The initiative to develop the Global Strategy to improve
agricultural and rural statistics (GSARS) came as a response to
address developing countries’ lack of capacity to provide
reliable statistical data on food and agriculture and to provide
a blueprint for long-term sustainable agricultural statistical
systems.
13. 13www.eo4agri.eu
The Global Information and Early Warning
System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS)
• The Global Information and Early Warning System on Food
and Agriculture (GIEWS) monitors the condition of major
foodcrops across the globe to assess production prospects. To
support the analysis and supplement ground-based
information, GIEWS utilizes remote sensing data that can
provide a valuable insight on water availability and vegetation
health during the cropping seasons. In addition to rainfall
estimates and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
(NDVI), GIEWS and FAO's CBC Division have developed the
Agricultural Stress Index (ASI), a quick-look indicator for the
early identification of agricultural areas probably affected by
dry spells, or drought in extreme cases.
15. 15www.eo4agri.eu
More local focused innitiatives
• Earth Observation for Economic Empowerment
• NextGEOSS
• Geo-Cradle
• AfriCultuReS
• EO4SD - Agriculture and Rural Development Cluster project
• STARS
16. 16www.eo4agri.eu
Earth Observation for Economic
Empowerment
• The purpose of the EOPOWER project was to create
conditions for sustainable economic development through the
increased use of Earth observation products and services for
environmental applications. This purpose serves the higher
goal of effective use of Earth observation for decision making
and management of economic and sustainable development
processes.
17. 17www.eo4agri.eu
NextGEOSS - Supporting Food
Security from Space
• The available information allows users to follow up crop
developments on field level. This means users are able to
define their own fields and get real-time information on the
status and health of their crops. Because we are working with
global datasets, this method can be applied to any location on
the planet. This allows decision makers, being on a local,
governmental or international level, to get the correct
information and a clear overview of the food production in
critical areas.
18. 18www.eo4agri.eu
Geo-Cradle
• enhance the current knowledge of existing EO capacities in the
region (through an ongoing survey),
• facilitate the cooperation between EO stakeholders (through a
networking platform and several events),
• identify the gaps and the maturity level (through analysis) and
boost the maturity of the different countries in the region,
• enable the exchange of EO data (by setting up a Regional Data Hub),
• showcase concrete ways of tackling regional challenges related to
adaptation of climate change, improved food security & water
extremes management, better access to raw materials and energy
(through feasibility studies),
• propose a roadmap for the implementation of GEO, GEOSS and
Copernicus in the three regions
19. 19www.eo4agri.eu
AfriCultuReS
• AfriCultuReS, supported by the GEO Secretariat, involves all
key players of AfriGEOSS, GEOGLAM, SIGMA, ARTEMIS,
African Drought Observatory and other initiatives as well as
partners representing the diversity of African agricultural
systems, in an effort to push forward the services provided by
current systems, with innovative fusion of data from multiple
sources (EO, in-situ, citizen-based crowdsourcing, climate
services and weather, crop models) in a vertical manner. Crop
yield and biomass prediction models is enhanced through the
fusion of EO data and climate models, emphasizing the use of
the complementary sensors of the EU Sentinels constellation.
20. 20www.eo4agri.eu
EO4SD - Agriculture and Rural
Development Cluster project
• The EO4SD - Agriculture and Rural Development Cluster
project aim is to develop and demonstrate the provision of
customised agricultural information services to support the
operations of the following MDBs and IFIs (international
financing institutions): the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), the Global Environment Facility (GEF),
the World Bank Group (WBG), the Inter-American
Development Bank (IADB) and the Asian Development Bank
(ADB).
• The preliminary list of case studies includes countries or
regions in different continents: North Africa (Morocco), Africa
(the Great Green Wall Initiative region, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso,
and Uganda), Latin America (Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay),
Asia (Cambodia) and Middle East (Syria).
21. 21www.eo4agri.eu
STARTS
• STARS is a research project which is looking for ways to use
remote sensing technology to improve agricultural practices in
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Supported by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, the project hopes to significantly
advance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in some of the
world’s poorest countries.
22. 22www.eo4agri.eu
Food security on Nairobi INSPIRE
Hack
• Important potential segment for EO services are initiatives to
food security and nutrition safety for third countries The
potential for new services in this direction will be analysed.
The needs will be collected and the EO4AGRI results and
proposals will be validated through dedicated workshops
23. 23www.eo4agri.eu
Pilot objectives
• Analyze, how running activities fit to real needs of African
Farming sector
• Run pilot test
• Prepare recommendation/white paper for African and
European Commission
• Establish effective partnership
• Run the test
24. 24www.eo4agri.eu
Some question
• Are EO technology suitable for African farming sector
• Where Farming Sector in Africa can benefit from Copernicus
• Is there space for Small Farmers
• Main difference between farming in Africa and Europe
• What will be main service for Africa
25. 25www.eo4agri.eu
Hackathon work
• 97 registered people for our team
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/14NxRSxR8Vxg-
zYiqeJRDfGW6QvFq5rxcvHpJv5qzzYU/edit#heading=h.ya0xk2y
lnqvj
26. 26www.eo4agri.eu
Hackathon work
We started with 3 questions
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LbbxRopF9JWNzERl2ufU
DVHHOtoMBTpU957lN6ddaHs/edit#heading=h.efky0xfi34x0
• Why I would like work in this group?
• Where Earth Observation can help to African Agriculture?
• Ideas about potential experiments?
27. 27www.eo4agri.eu
Why I would like work in this group?
• Food security is a major challenge in Kenya and Africa at large
considering the country’s economy is largely agrarian. Any
unforeseen changes in weather patterns could be fatal not only to
our economy but also to millions of people who rely on agriculture
for employment and as a source of livelihood.
•
Food and nutrition security is my major areas of expertise
therefore, I am always willing to participate in anything that can
help to improve my knowledge in the area. Besides the major
importance of food security in the development at a individual,
micro and macro level, I believe that I will be more efficient in this
team and I will participate significantly in the team.
•
Food (and water) insecurity are a consistent drivers of vulnerability
in Africa. I wish to be part of the solution to food insecurity
problem by collaborating with other interested experts and
stakeholders.
28. 28www.eo4agri.eu
Where Earth Observation can help to
African Agriculture
• Soil management can benefit a lot from earth observation.
Modeling erosion would help avert loss in soil fertility.
• Near real-time crop monitoring data would be very helpful to
farmers to enable them identify remedies to crop failures in good
time and avoid losses.
• The same data could assist government plan in advance in terms of
addressing the anticipated deficit in food stock hence avert cases of
food shortage.
• Earth Observation will also be very important in prediction analysis
in the agricultural sector. This will permit African Agriculture to be
economical and technically efficient. It can also permit African
countries to specialise in into different sector, therefore, develop
trade agreement..
• In highlighting the suitable areas for different agricultural practices
and the hotspots of food insecurity. As any other thematic area,
agriculture has a geographic dimension that can only be captured
and revealed by accurate and dynamic earth observation data.
29. 29www.eo4agri.eu
Ideas about potential experiments?
• Sampling plots from different agro-climatic zones in Kenya
and monitoring their growth using earth observation
techniques together with ancillary data like weather data and
biophysical data.
• Also establishing crop growth scenarios under different
weather events could help in projecting future yields which is
very critical in the planning operations and budgeting by state
agencies and county governments.
• Prediction of disease susceptibility of crop using the
temporal crop dynamics from earth observation data. Using
historical data of crop disease and connecting them with
features extracted from earth observation data for generating
alert of probable crop disease.
30. 30www.eo4agri.eu
Ideas about potential experiments?
• To make some experiments only based on observation data and
compare the results.
• A combination of agent-based models of human activities and how
these contribute to food (in)security and a dynamic changes in the
environment as captured by big earth observation data.
•
Accurate monitoring crop phenology to aid the application of farm
inputs like fertilizers, irrigation and farm management.
•
Assessment of hydrological flows through a combination of field
observations and output from satellite image analysis workflows.
•
Augmenting weather and climate monitoring through the use of
affordable in-situ weather sensors and remote sensed weather
estimates.
31. 31www.eo4agri.eu
First analysis
• Strong relation with pilot TEAM 2: Climatic Services for Africa
https://www.plan4all.eu/2019/03/team-2-climatic-services-
for-africa-karel-jedlicka/ and partly also with TEAM 4: IoT
Technologies for Africa
https://www.plan4all.eu/2019/03/team-4-iot-technologies-
for-africa/
• There is probably space for common experiment. Climatic
data and services seems to be highest priorities.
32. 32www.eo4agri.eu
Who are main target groups of
farmers in your country?
• In Kenya, some of the significant farmer groups include maize
farmers, rice farmers and sugarcane farmers
33. 33www.eo4agri.eu
Do you have practical experience with
implementation of EO in your country?
1. I (Parmita Ghosh) do have for my country India and Germany
2. I have experience with Copernicus Data for climate
monitoring (Kizito)
3. I have a background in applied geoinformatics and am
currently using earth observation data to address water and
food insecurity questions in the dryland regions of Kenya
(Francis Oloo)
34. 34www.eo4agri.eu
Can benefit small farmers from EO?
1. Sentinel 1, 2 has spatial resolution of 20 m so small farmers
can be benefited by the products developed using images
from these satellites.
2. Landsat can particularly be used for awareness creation on
issues like land degradation and land use change and its
influence on land health and the potential areas that can be
used for farming.
35. 35www.eo4agri.eu
Conclusion
1. We will continue in collection of ideas. Questions will be
available also on SmartAfriHub (see team 5)
2. We will use this for recommendation for future development
of COPERNICUS
3. We will try to build common projects on the base of ideas
4. We will prepare examples of indexes and analysis of image,
it will be available on https://www.smartafrihub.com/.
38. Thank you for your attention
Karel Charvat
charvat@wirelessinfo.cz
Place your name & email here
www.EO4AGRI.eu
This project has received funding from the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No [number]
![EO4AGRI Rome meeting
(Brussels, 13th June 2019)
EO4AGRI – T2.5 Food security
Karel Charvat
CoO
This project has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under
grant agreement No [number]
www.EO4AGRI.eu
Bringing together the knowledge
for better Agriculture Monitoring](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/eo4agri-t2-191001133904/85/eo4-agri-t25-food-security-1-320.jpg)
