Topic: “A world without hunger”

Remote sensing data has a range of uses in supporting planning and implementation processes. Remote sensing allows the condition of agricultural areas and plant stock (water content, biomass growth, crops, etc.) to be established “without contact”.

The data collected using this method can be evaluated to provide important insights into more precise and more efficient management and assessment, support land planning and monitor the effects of projects focusing on food security without the need for time-consuming and expensive on-site visits.

Inconsistent and incomplete data are one of the obstacles to effective resource management. Remote sensing data can partly fill these gaps in the data and provide transparent and uniform parameters as decision-making tools in planning processes.

Remote sensing data has a range of uses in supporting planning and implementation processes. Possible applications include improving the assessment of pest infestations, supporting fertilisation or irrigation planning as well as stock management. Besides this additional information, these data can potentially also be used for planning and management by farmers:

• Harvest forecasts to avoid price fluctuations
• Simplification of area control (e.g. compliance with certain crops or crop rotations)
• Simplification of statistical surveys on agricultural areas
• Establishment of insurances based on threshold values to protect against climate risks in agriculture.

Other examples of map products that can be created from remote sensing:

• Plant stress and damage assessments in agriculture (drought, flood, pest infestation)
• Mapping of plant communities
• Information on biodiversity
• Analyses of the soil properties and composition, such as the content of organic carbon in the topsoil
• Distinction between dry vegetation and open ground, which is important for assessing fertiliser requirements
• Remote sensing tools for tracking investments

In situ data are generally required to enable algorithms and models for preparing maps. This is associated with costs for the on-site visit. High spatial resolutions are a huge benefit for use in agriculture and also open up new possible uses, but also create new requirements for data retention and analyses. The higher resolutions of remote sensing data are also tied to an increasing data quantity which is virtually impossible to manage on normal PCs. Cloud methods or data cubes offer possible solutions to this problem.

The use of remote sensing at an operational level requires appropriate training in and availability of precision farming technologies and, in some cases, the use of drones to support stock management. This requires the rapid availability of data (e.g. via apps). But a need for research and development often still exists in this area to allow these kinds of technologies to be used across the board.

Remote sensing information has the following user groups, among others, in agriculture:

• Enterprises that want to use up-to-date information to support stock management
• Authorities and institutions that are interested in large-scale information and the change in conditions (monitoring) as well as historic information.

One GEOGLAM (Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring) product is the Crop Monitor, which combines information on the five main crops in the world’s primary production areas. This information is provided on the FAO’s Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS). The tool aims, among other things, to ensure market transparency in order to reduce speculation on food products. In addition, the Early Warning Crop Monitor provides an early warning of possible crises in plant production (food security).

WaPOR is a portal developed by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to monitor water productivity in agricultural ecosystems using remote sensing data. The tool provides free information, which describes water use efficiency in Africa and the Middle East over several years. Water authorities have free access to information to upgrade their irrigation systems and government authorities can use this information to encourage and increase the efficient use of their natural resources. WaPOR provides a range of variables that are useful for water resource management, although the portal does not currently offer any crop-specific information, so it cannot be used in every situation.

Remote sensing has been successfully used to monitor large agricultural leases in Ethiopia. Free Sentinel satellite data from the Copernicus earth observation programme allowed the current land use in the areas to be mapped and monitored to confirm whether the agricultural development of leased land took place within the defined areas. The project used “traditional” remote sensing tools as well as the Google Earth Engine to process the huge amount of data from the satellite time series. To do so, on-site training sessions were held with the competent ministries in cooperation with the Joint Research Center of the European Commission.

“RIICE” (Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crop in Emerging Economies) refers to the collection and evaluation of detailed information on around 15 million hectares of rice-growing areas in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The aim of this project was to use satellite-based crop insurances to reduce the susceptibility of small farmers to extreme weather events and strengthen their economic situation.

The Sector Network Rural Development Africa (SNRD) is a network of local and international GIZ specialists who work in the area of rural development in Africa. Among other things, SNRD provides webinars on various topics via an online platform in the context of digitalisation.

One webinar shows how satellite earth observation data from projects can be used to assess the status and changes in agricultural systems – with a particular focus on how valuable baseline information for agricultural monitoring and resource planning is obtained.