EO4SD Agriculture info session at the World Bank

The European Space Agency and the World Bank are jointly organising a 2-day knowledge sharing and capacity enhancement event on satellite Earth Observation applications in agriculture and rural development. The meeting will take place on 27 and 28 September 2018 at the World Bank premises in Washington D.C.

The 2-day event explores the utility and benefits of using satellite Earth Observation information services for agricultural planning, monitoring, and management. It will showcase how Earth Observation supports World Bank and other MDBs programs and projects that deal with:

• Monitoring agricultural production and productivity
• Monitoring & Evaluation of land degradation
• Agricultural commodities impact
• Ecosystem services provided by agriculture
• Planning and monitoring of rural infrastructure investment
• Food security and agriculture risk management
• Irrigation system development and management
• Environmental impact assessments

The awareness event (day 1) targets the higher management at the WB and will include round table discussions on how Earth Observation services can be successful embedded in the WB programs and projects, evaluating requirements at the WB, opportunities in upcoming programs and projects, and additional support required:

• Session 1 – Increase agricultural productivity & natural resources monitoring
• Session 2 – Optimise water use efficiency
• Session 3 – Achieve land neutrality
• Session 4 – Monitoring and evaluation activities using Earth Observation

The technical session (day 2) focus will be on how the Earth Observation services can be used. It will provide an overview of available satellite data and services and a demonstration of services and open source tools.

The knowledge and capacity enhancement event is the third of its kind in a series of training sessions that are being organised in different Multilateral Development Banks across the world. It is part of the capacity building offered by the Agriculture and Rural Development cluster project under the Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) initiative of ESA. EO4SD aims to achieve a step increase in the use of satellite-based environmental information in the MDBs regional and global programs.

Download the final info session agenda.