SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

seeing is believing:unlocking precision agriculture in West

African smallholder communities with very

high resolution imagery

gani ya kori ji

yenko ye foko bobe be wule bibile wob e

nif yaab la sida

AMEDD, Fuma Gaskiya, ICRISAT, IER, INERA, INRAN, KMG, SARI, UACT, UPN

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

The idea

• Precision ag. irrelevant to smallholders? FALSE

• West African farmers = PA pioneers

• Why would they want VHRI then?

– We’re not sure, but they want it for sure

– Field acreages, reveal less visible patterns of change

– Map hotspots, bright spots, other spots

– Field-level metrics for rainwater management

– The “conscious” (and ambitious) side: decision

support for productivity enhancement technology

(field level)

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

More ideas

• The “unconscious” (or safe) side: discussion support for agricultural landscape design (community level)

• Land tenure, community arbitration, decentralization

• The urban analogy – why should VHRI concentrate on urban areas? At such a low cost, shouldn’t rural communities equally benefit from it? YES, THEY SHOULD

• VHR mapping = precursor of land security & SLM (when you realize that you should own and invest)

• VHR mapping = precursor of intensification (when space is limited and resources need better organization)

• VHR mapping = precursor of demystification (when climate gets back into Pandora’s box)

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Objective(s)

• Demonstrate the value of VHRI to help scale up a few quick-win productivity enhancement technologies in 6 smallholder communities across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger

– Focus on the last 8 km

– Candidate technologies: spatially optimized soil and water management practices

– Show a variety of value-added products

– Demonstrate real-world deployability and potential impact

– Upload GIS datasets to shared online AgCommons repository

– Publish metadata on GeoNetwork

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

4 phases, 7 tasks

• 1: Organize resources: human, methods, tools

• VHRIbox

• VHRIex2

• 2: Share information at sites

• ROLLout (x 6)

• 3: CRT support functions

• CRTtopo (x 5)

• CRTverif (x 2)

• 4: FEED and CAP

• FEEDback (x 6)

• FASTfwd (x 6)

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 1: Build site-specific VHR information

containers and proto-maps (VHRIbox)

• 1 information container and 1 set of proto-maps per site

• Containers: geodatabase shells with initial matching

ingredients. Will later host project generated information

• Laminated printouts will crystallize initial VHRIbox content

into proto-maps to engage VHR information exchange

with farmers

• Proto-maps: field boundaries overlaid on i/ VHR color

composites, ii/ VHR NDVI, iii/ toposequence, slope

class, iv/ hotspots (field-level NDVI anomaly), v/ field-

level CRT potential

• Deliverables: 6 containers, 6x5 proto-maps

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 2: Build a human interface for VHR

information extraction and exchange

(VHRIex2) • Assemble, train team of VHRI-conversant staff including

1 gender-aware quintet per site: junior local extension

specialist literate in local languages, junior field GIS

technician or student , farmer representative, senior local

NGO or extension personnel, a scientist/backstopper

• Equip team with standard interfacing tools and

procedures to interact with different stakeholders

• Deliverables: 6 quintets, 1-week crash retreat held

for training on VHRIex2, 6 experimental protocols

with toolkits, procedures, etc. uploaded

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 3: Roll out VHRI to farmer fields

(ROLLout)

• Sequential site exposure from wet to dry

• proto-maps presented to FOs through focus groups

following a stratified sampling protocol (tbd): i/ farmers

exposed to proto-maps and productivity enhancement

technologies and ii/ farmers exposed to productivity

enhancement technologies only (control group)

• Movies and on-site demos on productivity enhancement

technologies

• IER and AMEDD to lead

• Deliverables: 6 sites covered from 01MAY-11JUN (1

week/site)

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 4: Derive field-level topography metrics

to assess potential (CRTtopo)

• develop semi-automated VHRI analysis method to extract dominant furrow azimuth in cattle plowed fields

• Drape results on DEM to estimate average departure from the dominant field slope

• Interpreted in terms of local priority for infiltration or drainage (function of field position on the toposequence)

• only applies to sites with significant cattle plowing: all but Serkin Hawsa

• Deliverables: 1 report on VHRI processing methods to assess field-level CRT potential, 5 field-level suitability maps (1 per site)

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 5: Test VHRI as an objective

verification tool (CRTverif)

• test the potential of VHRI for CRT impact assessment using historical measures of biomass productivity (NDVI-based) as an alternative to detailed household and field surveys

• Compare 30 CRT-equipped farmer fields in Fansirakoro and Sukumba to control fields that lie in the same toposequence class

• Deliverables: 1 report on VHRI processing methods to assess CRT impact in 2 sites

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 6: Collect user feedback on site

(FEEDback)

• deploy team in 6 sites to update, for all collaborating farmers: field boundaries, field ownership, cropping histories (field level), information resource allocation and management of abiotic stresses (household level).

• For best tradeoff between crop differentiation and farmer time constraints, will take place towards peak biomass (September)

• will involve collection of farmer feedback on productivity enhancement technologies they may have tested (or not), and on VHRI derived maps they may have used for purposes of technology targeting or for other purposes (or not).

• largest concurrent deployment of human resources.

• Deliverables: 6 sites covered concurrently (on-site presence: 1 month/site)

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Task 7: Forward maps of farmer screened

technology to sites (FASTfwd)

• Collate user feedback and encode information into site geodatabases, update proto-maps and ship back to FOs, LGAs, community leaders

• Laminate individual A4 farm maps for collaborating farmers, synthesizing key learnings, recommendations for technology deployment

• Elements of fine tuned information that will be forwarded: field acreage, intra-field hotspots of abiotic stress for targeting of (organic) fertilizer inputs, field fitness for CRT implementation (or other promising technology indentified during the course of the project).

• Deliverables: 6x5 laminated maps finalized and forwarded to local communities. 6xn individual farmer maps finalized and forwarded to local recipients, All geospatial material generated during project lifetime uploaded for online serving.

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

2 productivity enhancement technologies in

mind… or more?

• Water management: CRT (+20%!)

• ISFM: fertilizer micro-doses? Composting/manure?

(+20%!)

• Flexibility built-in for game time decisions depending on

local experts, farmers

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

• Top: 2003 and cover

(crop type) on pan

imagery

• Bottom: 2003 crop-

specific estimates of

mean biomass production,

in g.m-2 on ASTER digital

elevation model

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Multispectral false color composite (NIR reflectance

appears in red) displaying cotton stand establishment in

CRT (left) and non-CRT fields (right) on Diakaria Konaté's

farm, 40 days after sowing

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Same, with regressed biomass estimates overlayed.

Yellowish to greenish colors display field areas with at least

10 g.m-2 of crop dry matter equivalent

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Who and how many will be affected

• ~3,000 farmers & dependents (est. 50 farms or households per site, 10 people per farm/household)

• ~ 6 to 12 farmer organizations (1/site, plus women’s groups)

• ~3 to 6 local NGOs

• ~30 research personnel (scientists and extension staff included)

• ~ 3 to 6 institutions from donor community and policy making arena

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Ideas for phase 2 (if 1 works)

• Scale up: do the same in more communities– All 703 communes of Mali? ~2M USD

– Larger selection in more countries? ~x M USD

• Test new applications:– Test SOWO carbon accounting protocol for carbon trade projects

– Scale down aflatoxin risk early warning products in Ghana, Mali (in partnership with CCLF-aflatoxin project)

• Data-wise:– Get that GeoEye

– Get that SRTM-30m

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Ideas for phase 2 – carbon accounting

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Ideas for phase 2 – carbon accounting

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09

Ideas for phase 2 – aflatoxin risk

SIBWA – CSI – Nairobi, 02APR09