Posted on August 28, 2018 by Mariangela
From awareness to practice in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
In collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ESA’s EO4SD – Agriculture Cluster recently set-up in Phnom, Cambodia to organise a new workshop as part of the capacity building strategy developed and implemented by the cluster in several areas and regions worldwide. This three-day workshop, from 17-19 July, aimed to build awareness amongst local government agencies and authorities on the utility and potential benefits of using Earth Observation information services for agriculture and rural development. Emphasis was put on agricultural planning, as well as monitoring of projects that deal with agriculture and water-related issues.
This capacity building training was attended by over 60 participants from government agencies involved in different ADB projects (Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and Smallholder Development, and Strengthening and Rice SDP).
The opening, delivered by Jan Hansen, who is the ADB officer in charge of Cambodia, was the kick-off for three intense days. Participants were introduced to the current state of GIS and Remote Sensing use in Cambodia, as well as the portfolio of services offered by the EO4SD Agriculture Cluster. Attendees received presentations on a wide range of opportunities for using remote sensing for agriculture-related issues in Cambodia.
Despite Cambodia’s significant economic growth in recent years, the persistence of rural poverty and growing income disparity between rural and urban areas have caused deep concern for the government and its development partners.
During the training, the EO4SD experts showed environmental analyses of the participants’ provinces in the form of comprehensive graphs and tables of data, which was well received by the audience. From the feedback provided by the participants, there was a significant increase in awareness of the opportunities provided by Remote Sensing products and services.
The final day had a clearly practical approach. Hands on exercises were delivered and participants received training on the online Lizard platform. The experts also gave a short introduction on how to create report assets with QGIS, as well as a tour of online tools for discovering and downloading Sentinel-2 imagery.
After three days of awareness activities and training, our partners in Cambodia are prepared for practice.