Workshop on "Developing an Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems"

Objective

Agriculture is one of the Societal Benefit Areas identified by GEO and agricultural risk management (Ag 0702) and development of a strategy for global agriculture monitoring are key tasks (Ag 0703). The focus of the former is on seasonal climate forecasting, the integration of these forecasts in integrated agricultural management and crop simulation models and cope with agricultural risk. The focus of the latter is on integration of satellite and ground based monitoring in support of agricultural production and food security.

A significant amount of research has been conducted, at local, national and regional scales during the last three decades utilizing satellite remote sensing for different aspects of agricultural monitoring. As an example, a programme of research by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has resulted in the China Crop Watch System (CCWS). Under this programme, 26 major agricultural countries are being covered by a remote sensing based assessment of agriculture. Other global and regional monitoring programmes exist in Europe and North America, however a unified global programme of satellite and in-situ earth observations has not emerged. Despite the maturity of the methods and increasing availability of satellite data and the increasing predictive accuracy of seasonal forecasts, a number of countries do not have the benefit of timely, agricultural monitoring and a number of established ground-based agricultural monitoring programmes have yet to take full advantage of remotely sensed observations. With the increasing concern about the World's food supply and food security, the frequency of extreme climate events and the projected increase in food demand from growing World population, attention needs to be given to coordination of the earth observations necessary to support effective global agricultural monitoring systems.

The overall aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for exchange of experience and discussion of the necessary components of an Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems that would improve agricultural risk management, agricultural monitoring and food security; the best practices for operational agricultural monitoring; the policy issues associated with the sharing of data and information; and how China could develop a program of international collaboration on agricultural risk management and monitoring.

The workshop has the following specific objectives:

To review and refine the observational requirements for the Agricultural Monitoring (GEOSS Task AG 07 03) and Agricultural Risk Management (GEOSS Task AG0702), identifying the components of an Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems for the delivery of forecast and crop production related information and identify what improvements are needed.
To review and document the best practices and procedures for agricultural risk management and monitoring;
To review the existing data and product policies and the data policy conditions necessary for the development of an effective system of systems;
To identify the way forward, collaborations and partnerships between the earth observation community and the agricultural monitoring community of practice to achieve the goals of the GEOSS Agricultural Risk Management (AG 07 02) and Agricultural Monitoring (AG 07 03) Tasks.

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Last Update: April 16, 2009.

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