AIR Holds Workshop on CropWatch for Agricultural Monitoring in Nigeria

An online Workshop on the Application of CropWatch for Agricultural Monitoring in Nigeria was held on 25 May, 2021. It was jointly hosted by the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) of Nigeria. Prof. WU Bingfang, head of the CropWatch team from AIR and his team members, and Mr. Halilu Ahmed Shaba, Director General of NASRDA, Mr. Matthew Adepoju, Director of the NASRDA Department of Strategic Space Applications, and his colleagues from this department joined the workshop.

Mr. Halilu Ahmed Shaba said in his opening remarks that the ANSO CropWatch Innovation Cooperation Programme for Agricultural Monitoring (CropWatch-ICP) is exactly what they need and he looked forward to an effective cooperation.

Mr. Matthew Adepoju pointed out that Africa, and Nigeria in particular, faces big challenges in food security, and that space technology is urgently needed for solving agricultural problems. In this regard, he hoped that they can learn from the Chinese team, follow up with the latest technological advances and move toward the realization of food security.

The Nigerian team introduced the basics of NASRDA, and its agricultural projects. The CropWatch team presented the CropWatch-ICP programme, the CropWatch technology and its application prospects.

The two sides had detailed discussion on how to carry out cooperation. The cooperation will expand the application of the CropWatch system in West Africa, benefit other Belt and Road countries and promote the realization of sustainable development goals.

The two sides agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and include, apart from agriculture, water, ecology, and other fields of related to Earth observation.

The workshop is also supported by the National Key Research and Development Program Development of advanced crop monitoring methods under GEOGLAM Flagship and the CAS Big Earth Data Science Engineering Program.