AMESD IN MALAWI
AGRICULTURE SERVICE
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY, MALAWI
Presentation at AMESD SADC Thema Final Workshop
Gaborone, Botswana
INTRODUCTION

LRCD is one of the Departments in MoAFS

It is responsible for promotion of programmes that
ensure proper management of land based natural
resources for improved agricultural production and other
uses.

VISION:
 ‘a
nation with reduced land degradation’
INTRODUCTION…

MISSION:


To provide efficient and diversified services on
environmental conservation to the land users for
sustainable use of land based resources and socioeconomic development
POLICY GOAL:
 Promote efficient and diversified and sustainable use
of land based resources for both agriculture and
other uses in order to avoid sectoral land use
conflicts and ensure sustainable socio-economic
growth and development
FUNCTIONS
Departmental core functions
 Development of policies and strategies relating to land
resources management;
 Planning and coordination of programmes on land resource
management;
 Provision of land resources information services;
 Monitoring and evaluating land use/cover changes;
 Provision of training in land resources management, and
 Provision of technical support in land resource management.
OPERATIONS BEFORE AMESD

Traditionally the department could only source
remote sensing data from hard copy aerial
photos and satellites images in hard copy
which were generally outdated.
TYPE OF AMESD SERVICE USED AS WELL AS
THE PRODUCTS

Agriculture service is being used for monitoring
the state of crops and the environment.
 Basically
for prediction of onset of rainfall.
 Vegetation index maps and graphs.
 Use of near real time remote sensing products
 Rainfall maps and graphs.
USE OF AMESD PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Not much has been done on policy level, but
the department provided data on NDVI to
Bunda College of Agriculture and Total Land
Care (NGO) (upon request).
 The data from the station was used in the
Malawi Climate Change Program especially on
land Use and Land Cover diagnostics. The data
on Land Cover and NDVI helped out in
determination of Land Cover Classification for
Malawi for 2010 and also on Land cover
change analysis for 2000 and 2010.
(combination of SPOT and Landsat satellite
images).

USE OF AMESD PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
The data received from this Station was
used in Global Monitoring Food Security
(GMFS) project currently underway in the
Ministry of Agriculture.
 Not much done on the ground, since the
system has been down for most part of the
time.

TRAINING/WORKSHOP





4 officers participated in the Distance Learning Course
in GIS/Remote Sensing which was facilitated by ITC;
1 IT officer attended training for Systems Administrator
in Pretoria;
2 Officers attended 1st and 2nd Regional trainings in
Pretoria, South Africa;
Conducted 1 briefing workshop for policy makers (26
policy makers attended);
Conducted two national trainings with a total of 14 and
15 participants for the first and second trainings
,respectively;
TRAINING/WORKSHOP…..
Participants to workshop for policy makers
TRAINING/WORKSHOP…..
Participants to National Training #1
TRAINING/WORKSHOP
Participants to NT2
CHALLENGES
Unoperational status of the e-Station due to
technical failure due to the absence of the
Systems Administrator;
 Lack of faster internet to enable the users
download the products from EMMA web;
 Frequent
power
outages
affecting
continuous data reception;

WAY FORWARD
There is need to train more than one Systems
Administrator;
 If possible, MESA should assist in installation of a
faster internet to enable users download products
direct from the website if the e-Station is down;
 Alternative sources of power (e.g. solar power)
need to be explored so as not miss any data; and
 In MESA, consider using higher resolution
imagaes so that analysis can be done even for
smaller areas.

End of Presentation
Thank you for your Attention