www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Launching Next Generation ICT for Weather and Water

Information and Advice to Smallholders in Africa

Bharat R Sharma, L. Rebelo, G. Amarnath, I. Miltenburg

5th CRS ICT4D Conference: Mobile Services that Empower Vulnerable Communities

March 19-21, 2013; Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana

Water for a food-secure world Water for a food-secure world

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 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

Smart ICT for Weather and Water

Information and Advice to

Smallholders in Africa

What did we already do?

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

Run Operational

Service • Data acquisition

(satellite

imagery)

• Calculation

automation

• Tool application

• Development of

Information

Package

• Central storage

• Dissemination through user

application

Water for a food-secure world Water for a food-secure world

Topic Contribution Ethiopia

(Arata

Chufa)

Sudan

(Gash

region)

Mali (Office du Niger)

Egypt (Naubariya Governorat

e)

Weather Temperature , rainfall, RH, wind speed, reference ET

y y y

Hydrology River flow y Crop growth Biomass production, yield,

Nitrogen, Leaf Area Index y y y y

Agricultural Water Manage.

Crop water stress, crop water use, water productivity, soil moisture, irrigation advise

y y y y

Flood Inundation extent

Daily/weekly spatial surface water extent for Gash delta/mesga blocks; flood early warning

Y

Strategy and Approach: Modular

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 Water for a food-secure world

From pixels….to information….to simple action messages Fo

r each

field

: we

ekly

pre

dictio

ns:

Smart ICT for Weather and Water

Information and Advice to

Smallholders in Africa

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

0 400 800

Smart ICT for Weather and Water

Information and Advice to

Smallholders in Africa

Example Operational service

• Minerals

• Growth

• Moisture

• biomass production (kg/ha)

• leaf area index LAI (m2 leaf/m2 ground)

• vegetation index NDVI

• evaporation shortage (mm/week)

• current evaporation (mm/week)

• surplus rain (mm/2 weeks)

• reference evaporation

• Nitrogen content in the top leaf layer (kg/ha)

• Nitrogen content in all leafs (kg/ha)

Example FieldLook Web Platform

Information packages

((2)weekly/seasonal)

Based on satellite imagery

Water for a food-secure world

• Frequent rain-induced floods result in heavy losses in agriculture in this region

The GeoSFM is a semi-distributed physically based hydrological model that simulates the dynamics of runoff processes using RS data

Inundation and flood forecasting: The Gash River, Sudan

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=12099

Spatially distributed data is assimilated to simulate stream flow on a daily basis

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Flood Inundation Products

Smart ICT for Weather and Water

Information and Advice to

Smallholders in Africa

http://fieldlook.com.sd/ Also available in the Arabic Language

FieldLook Sudan operational website

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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.

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Target Groups

• 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

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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

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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