Launching Next Generation ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to Smallholders in Africa
Bharat R Sharma, L. Rebelo, G. Amarnath, I. Miltenburg
4th CRS ICT4D Conference: Mobile Services that Empower
Vulnerable Communities
March 19-21, 2013; Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org
Water is an increasingly scarce input in
agriculture in Africa.
• The challenge is to increase agricultural
production while reducing water
consumption.
Smart and affordable technologies need to be
adapted to customize farm management for
smallholders.
• Tools that can monitor plot specific
information and generate advice shall be
helpful.
Water for a food-secure world
What are the opportunities to use ICT to increase
agricultural productivity?
Satellite images are increasingly being used to assist
commercial farmers and agribusinesses
Innovative approaches and ICT based technologies
Advice to end users for:
- informed decision making
- enhanced negotiation capacity with water and farm related
service providers
Water for a food-secure world
What did we already do?
Run Operational
Service
Development Tools
& Algorithms
• Develop Tool
algorithms ->Turn
satellite imagery
and ancillary data
into valuable
information
• Develop
operational
calculation system
• Develop data
delivery
infrastructure
• Develop user
applications
Smart ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to
Smallholders in Africa
•
•
•
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Data acquisition
(satellite
imagery)
Calculation
automation
Tool application
Development of
Information
Package
Central storage
Dissemination through user
application
Strategy and Approach: Modular
Topic
Contribution
Ethiopia Sudan
(Arata (Gash
Chufa)
region)
Mali
Egypt
(Office du (Naubariya
Governorat
Niger)
e)
Temperature , rainfall, RH, wind y
speed, reference ET
River flow
Hydrology
Crop growth Biomass production, yield,
y
Nitrogen, Leaf Area Index
Agricultural Crop water stress, crop water use, y
water productivity, soil moisture,
Water
irrigation advise
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
Flood
Inundation
extent
Y
Weather
Manage.
Daily/weekly spatial surface water
extent for Gash delta/mesga
blocks; flood early warning
Information packages and transfer modes (cell phone, radio, smart
phone, web) will be piloted based on the requirements and
possibilities per location.Water for a food-secure world
From pixels….to information….to simple action messages
For each field: weekly
predictions:
Water for a food-secure world
Development of Information Packages
• Weekly calculation of information package from satellite image
• Period: 2012: August 15 – December 31 -> Finished and available
• Period: 2013: August 15 – December 31 -> Next season
• 9 parameters (evapotranspiration, biomass growth, crop stress, …)
14-Dec – 20-Dec 2012
Biomass Production
[kg/ha/week]
High detail:
20m spatial resolution
0
400
Smart ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to
Smallholders in Africa
800
Example Operational service
Example FieldLook Web Platform


Information packages
((2)weekly/seasonal)
Based on satellite imagery
Growth
•
biomass production (kg/ha)
leaf area index LAI (m2 leaf/m2 ground)
vegetation index NDVI
•
•
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Moisture
•
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evaporation shortage (mm/week)
current evaporation (mm/week)
surplus rain (mm/2 weeks)
reference evaporation
Minerals
Nitrogen content in the top leaf layer (kg/ha)
Nitrogen content in all leafs (kg/ha)
Smart ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to
Smallholders in Africa
Inundation and flood forecasting: The Gash River, Sudan
• Frequent rain-induced floods result in heavy losses in agriculture in this region
The GeoSFM is a semidistributed physically
based hydrological
model that simulates the
dynamics of runoff
processes using RS data
Spatially distributed data is assimilated to simulate stream
flow on a daily basis
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/vie
w.php?id=12099
Water for a food-secure world
Flood Inundation Products
Water for a food-secure world
FieldLook Sudan operational website
http://fieldlook.com.sd/
Also available in the Arabic Language
Smart ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to
Smallholders in Africa
Final Outputs
• Cell-phone and web-based information system
developed and tested in pilot areas.
• Different stakeholders/ end users are able to
make use of information and advice for better
management, negotiation.
• Priorities for specific weather, water, crop
related information agreed and mode of
transfer identified.
• Agri-industry and other service providers
interested in expansion and continuance.
Water for a food-secure world
Target Groups
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•
•
•
•
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Individual smallholder farmers
Contract farm managers
Water User Associations
Irrigation Boards and Block Inspectors
Agriculture Extension Service Providers
Crop and Livestock Insurance Companies
Commodity stock cooperatives/ traders
State Dept. of agriculture/ irrigation/Meteo.
Agric. Research Institutions
Water for a food-secure world
Project Partners
ELEAF, DLV Plant, Basfood, The Netherlands
-The Hydraulic Research Station, Sudan
-Soil, Water, Environment Research Institute, Egypt
-Directorate of National Meteorology, Mali
-The HEDBEZ Consult, Ethiopia
Water for a food-secure world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming
Bharat Sharma
International Water Management Institute- New Delhi, India
b.sharma@cgiar.org
Water for a food-secure world