CropWatch Cloud supports crop monitoring for food security in Mozambique

News / 26 November 2018

For the first time ever, CropWatch Cloud is directly supporting officials in an African country to use crop monitoring technology for decision making in support of food security.

With support from GEO’s Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM), a customized CropWatch Cloud for Mozambique was officially launched and incorporated into the National Agro-Meteorological Bulletin. The achievement demonstrates that low-income countries can benefit from Earth observations-based decision-making support without additional infrastructure investment.

Developed by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deployed via Alibaba Cloud, CropWatch Cloud gives users access to recent Earth observation data and cutting edge crop monitoring technology.

Mozambique’s CropWatch Cloud is an open platform that provides analysis-ready products to improve and promote ownership and innovation in agriculture monitoring. The platform was customized according to local agricultural conditions and requirements by providing a Portuguese language interface and incorporating crop phenology and various administrative units.

Monitoring results generated using CropWatch Cloud were officially incorporated into the  National Agro-Meteorological Bulletin  in June 2018, where they will inform ongoing decisions related to crop management and food security. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security said “[Mozambique] welcomes the customized CropWatch Cloud, because it might be cost-effective when compared with traditional system.”

Staff from national and provincial Crop Monitoring and Early Warning departments receive training in Maputo, September 2018

Staff from national and provincial Crop Monitoring and Early Warning departments receive training in Maputo, September 2018

For 20 years CropWatch has been a leading global crop monitoring system, increasing agricultural market transparency though the assessment of global, regional and national agro-climatic, agronomic information and crop production using remote sensing derived indicators. Quarterly Bulletins released by CropWatch have been downloaded by users and stakeholders from 149 countries, contributing to the global effort for more reliable, transparent, and up-to-date information on agricultural production to combat food insecurity.

The Mozambique CropWatch Cloud project was completed with support from the China World Bank Group Partnership Facility (CWPF) and Digital Belt and Road Sciences Programme (DBAR-AGRI).

For more information please contact:

Bingfang Wu: wubf@radi.ac.cn;
Miao Zhang: zhangmiao@radi.ac.cn;