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www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart-ICT for Irrigation and Flood Advice to the Smallholders in Africa

Bharat Sharma, Lisa M-Rebelo, G. Simons, Giriraj Amarnath,

1International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka; 2eLEAF Competence Center, The Netherlands and partner institutes

www.iwmi.org

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.

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

• 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

What are the opportunities to use ICT to increase agricultural productivity?

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

The Underlying Principles• Satellite measures radiation from the sun (visible, NIR, SWIR) and

earth’s surface (TIR)• Coupling between atmosphere, vegetation and soil• Different types of surfaces have different spectral signatures

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Data Production: Remote Sensing• Temperature is a function of evapotranspiration• SEBAL solves the energy balance based on satellite information and

weather data and computes ET as a residual: ET= Rn – G – H

• Dry matter biomass production is calculated based on the present vegetation cover and the fraction of incoming net radiation available for photosynthesis

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Area Country Start date End date

West Nubaria Egypt 2012-05-01 2013-11-01*

Arata Chufa Ethiopia 2012-10-15 2013-04-15

Gash Delta Sudan 2012-07-01 2012-12-30

Gash Delta Sudan 2013-07-01 2013-12-30

The country sites in Africa

EgyptEthiopia

Sudan

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Data production• ET, Biomass Production and related parameters are calculated spatially

discrete for all three project areas, based on high-resolution 20m DMC images

• Instantaneous data (valid for the moment of satellite image capturing) are converted to weekly products for the pre-defined seasons

• This procedure is repeated every week: keeping track of the varying crop water conditions throughout the season

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Internet

Dissemination

Website with map

server&

Irrigation forecast

tool

Calibration and validation

Crop water consumption

Irrigation forecasts

In situ data collection

Block delineation by

farmers

Meteo data

Earth observation data

DMCFengYun

MODIS MSG

SMS to farmers

cell phone

Data processing (NL)

Basic EO data processing

Sophisticated data

processing

Meteorological data

processing

SMSGateway

Smart ICT Operational Process

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT FieldLook web portal• Based on the eLEAF FieldLook platform

which has operational versions in multiple countries

• www.fieldlook.com.eg www.fieldlook.com.etwww.fieldlook.com.sd

• Newly developed features include:- Interaction with data received by SMS- Oromiffaa and Arabic language- Suitability for managing multiple fields of individual farmers under 1 account (advisor functionality)- Adjusted design for slower connections- Custom parameter pack, including flood data (Sudan)

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT: FieldLook content• Growth

• biomass production (kg/ha) • leaf area index LAI (m2 leaf/m2 ground) • vegetation index NDVI

• Moisture• evapotranspiration deficit (mm/week) • current evapotranspiration (mm/week) • water use efficiency (kg/m3) • reference evapotranspiration

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

• Inundation (Sudan)• Irrigation Planner

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT: FieldLook web portalMyFields overview page of www.fieldlook.com.eg, displaying biomass production for March 21 – March 27, 2013 of maize farmer Ibrahem Abdel-Halim Hasanen

- Example parameter: biomass production- Feb 2013: winter season underway,

biomass is increasing- Spatial biomass production is non-uniform- Remote sensing: Scan of current situation,

cause is unknown- Could be: difference in soil type,

malfunction in irrigation system, different crop variety, diseases, etc.

- Irrigation extension can contact farmer based on anomalies

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Web portal: observations

• Per area, 60 pilot farmers have been subscribed

• Pilot farmers are subscribed through centralized accounts – used as addition to regular extension services

• Less suitable for reaching smallholder farmers directly

• Other users: research institutes, government agencies, commercial agri-business, insurance firms

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT: SMS service

• How to go from spatial information (FieldLook) to text-based SMS?

• What information to provide? Many parameters in FieldLook + Irrigation Planner

• Quantitative or qualitative information?eg. “487 kg/ha biomass production?”or: “above average biomass production?”

• Options for setting up the operational SMS service: “push” vs. “pull”

• Timely information delivery: interactivity is required

Farmer Adel receiving a text message about his emerging maize field

Text message:From: <Mob. number>IrriLook <Fieldname> -i 25To ….

Check: <Mob. number> in Database?

From: FieldLook Please register …To <Mob. number>

Irrigation Server

Check: <Fieldname> in Database?

Update systemRun real-time calculation

Extract: Fieldname(s) from user from database

From: Fieldlook We have the following fields registered …To <Mob. number>

Farmer

From: Fieldlook<Fieldname> data/adviceTo <Mob. number>

On demand SMS information

+Date Provision to

system-

Real-time Tool calculation

free

free

free

Determine: data/advice from calculation resultsFrom: FieldLook

<Fieldname> Please try again later…To <Mob. number>

Option F

Smart ICT SMS service

1. Fieldlook information- field-average biomass production and water use efficiency - cumulative values related to the average value for the same crop and the same week of the growing season- on-demand and weekly ‘push’- Ethiopia: qualitative only, Egypt: quantitative and qualitative

2. Irrigation advice on demand- updated daily based on Irrigation Planner

3. Farmer inputs on irrigation amounts for running the Irrigation Planner- full, medium, low

Performance biomass growth since start season for Wheat: similar to average of all Wheat fields.

Advice 12/03/2013 potatos: Irrigate in 3 or 4 days.

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT SMS service

• Simplified: One- or two-letter codes to match farmer SMS skills• SMS logs are monitored to identify problems at the farmer’s end

(technical or in understanding of the service), and the local project partners are notified

• Specifics have been changed throughout the season to match user feedback, feedback from local partners and observations from the SMS logs

• Evaluation of the service in Ethiopia is currently on-going after the end of the growing season, in cooperation with the local partner

• SMS service in Egypt is still in progress (2nd seson), SMS service in Sudan is operational for the 2013 flood/ kharif season

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Soil

Moi

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vel (

cm3/

cm3)

Date

Hashamia 10 - Soil Moisture LevelsOriginal Irrigation Scheme

Soil Moisture (cm3/cm3) Field Capacity (cm3/cm3)

Plant Water Stress Point (cm3/cm3) Wilting Point (cm3/cm3)

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Soil

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Hashamia 10 - Soil Moisture LevelsAlternative Irrigation Scheme

Soil Moisture (cm3/cm3) Field Capacity (cm3/cm3)

Plant Water Stress Point (cm3/cm3) Wilting Point (cm3/cm3)

Name Irr_total E_tot T_tot ET_tot Emax Tmax percolation NDVI_max Soil type

[mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [-] [-]

Hasha10_new 450 68 168 236 1.9 3.2 252 0.65Sandy loam

Hasha10_alternative 209 68 168 233 1.9 3.2 0 0.65Sandy loam

Irrigation planner: impact example

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Achievements and Future Plans• Production of field-specific spatial

data related to water consumption and crop growth.

• 180 Pilot smallholder farmers and additional users are supplied with these data weekly through Smart ICT channels.

• Development and continuous improvement of Web and SMS system based on feedback from users and local project partners.

• Participating in capacity building of smallholder end users.

• Developing business and upscaling plans.

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming

Thank you!