© GEO Secretariat

GEO GLAM: Africa

an initiative to Inform Decisions and Actions

Chris JusticeUniversity of MarylandAgriculture Monitoring Task Ag 1Co-Chair

The origins of GEO...

• Johannesburg WSSD 2002 (RIO+10) called for a strengthened cooperation and coordination among Global Observations Systems and R&D programs for integrated global observations

• G8 held in Evian that called for strengthened international cooperation on global observation for the environment

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

U.S. Department of State, Washington DCJuly 31, 2003

GEO, the Group on Earth ObservationsAn Intergovernmental Organization with 87 Members

and 61 Participating Organizations

© GEO Secretariat

The Vision for GEOSS…

…a world where decisions and actions are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations.

© GEO Secretariat

The GEO Agriculture Task– established in 2007

Fostering increased communication, sharing of experience and engaging institutions in building capacity around the world… through a coordinated Community of Practice (COP)

A multilevel approach:• Enhance current monitoring capabilities• Help build national monitoring capacity where

none is available or improvement is required• Advocating and ensuring free access to

reliable, relevant and spatialized data (space and ground)

Thus…the major challenge…creating an operational global monitoring system of systems and ensuring its sustained operation

Agricultural Monitoring Systems Contributing to the GEO Community of Practice

• Several global/regional scale systems in place – with common data needs, few common standards and protocols and inconsistent results

• Most countries have a national agricultural monitoring system

The AG01 Task led by the AG COP Global Agricultural Monitoring and Early

warning • Major Focus Areas of the Task:

– A global operational monitoring system of systems for Agricultural Production (e.g. USDA FAS, EU MARS, China Cropwatch, FAO GIEWS)

– Famine Early-warning Systems and Food Security (e.g. USAID FEWSNet, JRC MARS, FAO GIEWS)

– GEO African Ag Capacity Building (formerly Johnson

Owaro, Uganda, OPM > Humbulani Mudua, GEO Sec)

– Agricultural Land-use Change and Climate(w.GOFC/GOLD)

Defourny 2010Black - Global Operational Grey – Regionally ImplementedWhite – Research / Local Domain

Crop Monitoring and Famine Early Warning

GEO Ag 1 Task Organization

• GEO Secretariat AG 1 POC – Joao Soares (Geo Sec, Brazil, INPE)

• Task Co Chairs – Chris Justice (USA, UMD), Olivier Leo (EU, JRC), Wu Bingfang (China, IRSA), Derrick Williams (US,USDA)

• Task Secretariat – Jai Singh Parihar (India, ISRO)

• Major Sub-task Leads: – JECAM - Ian Jarvis (Canada, Agric and Agrifood) – Pierre Defopurny,

Belgium UCL) – PAY – Inbal Becker-Reshef (USA, UMD)– Global Agricultural Land Use Map – Steffen Fritz (Austria, IIASA) – Rangeland Production – Mike Grundy (Australia, CSIRO)

Monitoring of pastures and rangelands

• Expanding GEO Agriculture Task to include monitoring of rangeland productivity • Rangelands – native species often used for livestock; • Pasturelands – improved species and designed for livestock

• The importance of these lands:• Large proportion of the earth’s surface• Large and growing population• Food impact beyond the footprint• Multiple roles in human nutrition and welfare and key foundations for

many ecosystems and biodiversity – many in vulnerable states

Mike Grundy, CSIRO

Monitoring of pastures and rangelands

• Change in these lands:• Structural change:

• From the 1970s to the 1990s, the consumption of meat in the developing world grew by 70 million tonnes, compared with only 26 million tonnes in the developed world – Milk demand similar

• Based on greater utilisation of traditional feed resources as well as an increased use of feed grains• Demand has so far been met mainly from increased off-take rather than increases in productivity

The GEO Rangeland Monitoring Sub-task

• An earth observation approach to pasture / rangeland biomass production and condition relevant to the production of animal protein.

• Centred on the biomass produced from pastures and rangelands and on the condition / quality to produce food (animal protein)

• Design elements• Global monitoring of pasture and rangelands biomass and

utilization – to manage risk and improve production of food at a range of scales

• Timely and accurate national (sub-national) agricultural statistical reporting

• Accurate forecasts of pasture and rangelands productivity declines• Early warning of pasture decline, food production shortfalls• Assessment (mapping, monitoring and modelling) of change in

pasture and rangelands in social, economic and ecological context and as climate and land use changes.

Next Step in Building the new Rangeland sub-task

• Assemble members of the rangeland monitoring Community of Practice to scope and design the task and identify activities e.g.

• System Specifications (attributes, resolution, frequency, nesting of resolution / frequency, modelling, uncertainty, . . .)

• Connections to national statistics, reporting . . .• Access to data, use, communication . . .• Calibration and validation support (design, data management, iteration, . .)• The animal dimension....

• For further information contact

Mike GrundyGEO Rangeland Production Sub Task Lead Theme Leader, Landscape Systems and TrendsSustainable Agricultural FlagshipPhone: +61 7 3833 5630Email: Mike.Grundy@csiro.auWeb: http://www.csiro.au/org/Sustainable-Agriculture-Flagship.html

G20 Agricultural Monitoring Initiative

“ We, the G20 Agriculture Ministers, meet today to address the issue of food price volatility with the ultimate objective to improve food security and agree on an “Action Plan on food price volatility and agriculture” that will be submitted to our Leaders at their Summit in November 2011.” (introduction of the “G20 Agriculture Action Plan”, June 2011)

our response prompted by the French Ministry of Agriculture was a proposal to implement the GEO Agricultural Production Monitoring

Task

GEO GLAM

the proposal was accepted with a partner proposal from FAO addressing stocks, markets and prices with a focus on reducing

market volatility

Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) © GEO Secretariat

GEO-GLAM - Meeting– 2011 September 22nd-23rd – GenevaGlobal Agricultural Monitoring

17

Action 1. National capacities for agricultural monitoring Strengthening, capacity building, experience sharing, research.

Action 2. Global and regional agricultural monitoring systems Harmonizing, connecting and strengthening of existing systems, inter-comparing and disseminating their information.

Action 3. Global Earth observation system for agricultural monitoring : Developing an operational system : coordinated satellite and in-situ Earth Observation and weather forecasting;

Long term commitment. Free and open data policy.

To reinforce the international community’s capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely and accurate forecasts of agricultural production at national, regional and global scales.

The GEO-GLAM proposal : Actions

GEO-GLAM Components

Coordinated Satellite and In-

Situ Earth Observations

Strengthening National

Capacity for Agricultural Monitoring

Earth Observations Satellite / Ground Data / Models

Operational Research and Development Techniques/Methods/Best Practices

Improved Reporting and Information and Timely Dissemination SystemsCondition/Area/ Yield / Statistics

FAO STAT AMIS Public

MONITORING SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS

Meteorological Expertise and

Info

Agricultural Expertise

(GEO CoP+)

Enhancing Global Agricultural

Monitoring Systems

1

Monitoring Countries and Regions at Risk

(EWS)

2 3

Govts.

GEO GLAM: Africa Africa is a priority for Food Security and National Capacity strengthening – building on existing activities and programs and identified gaps.

• Secure G20 funds for African Capacity Building (June 2011)

• First step – Refine the needs for African Agricultural Monitoring developed at the various Task workshops (including this meeting )

• Revive unfunded GEO Africa proposals e.g. Gideon, Johnson

• Develop GEO JECAM: Africa – Ian et al. (this meeting) • Identify African National Capacity Building efforts and

activities for new targeted G20 funding (including this meeting)

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