Food Security Information
In June 2002 the World Food Summit reaffirmed its pledge to end hunger and called for an international alliance to accelerate efforts towards that goal. In line with the Millennium Development Goals, the summit participants aimed to reduce the number of people without enough food to eat from the 800 million existing today to about 400 million by 2015.
This general goal has been adopted by the EC and EU member states in their development policies. In direct support to the objectives of these policies the GSE Food Security portfolio aims to provide sustainable operational information services, derived at least partly from earth observation data, to assist food aid and food security decision makers.
The target user community of the GSE Food Security services are decision makers in non-governmental, governmental and intergovernmental organisations who require information on agricultural production in the food-insecure countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Direct users of the services are primarily the already-existing agencies who support food-security decision makers (FAO, WFP, JRC/MARS-FOOD, Regional and National Early Warning Systems, national ministries of agriculture, etc.), rather than the decision makers themselves. This strategy aims to avoid duplication of existing services, such as those provided by FAO/GIEWS and JRC/MARS-FOOD. It also allows the service network to concentrate its resources and expertise on EO-based information, rather than on the integration with socio-economic data and subsequent expert interpretation.
Services
The services consist of agricultural yield forecasting based on agro-meteorological modelling, combined with EO-based mapping of agricultural activities, including the distribution and condition of crops, and the planting and harvesting dates. Services based on low resolution EO data are provided at continental and regional scale for general monitoring by international agencies of the growing season and early warning of impending crises. Services based on medium and high-resolution EO data are provided at national scale to support the national early warning systems, and the crop and food supply assessment missions of international aid agencies. National scale services provided in partnership with national agencies allow the remotely sensed information to be combined with local knowledge to provide more detailed analyses. These partnerships also facilitate capacity building and technology transfer to developing countries.
User Feedback & Involvement
Since March 2003, the service providers and users have worked in partnership to develop a service portfolio meeting the users' needs. The services have been delivered to the users and then validated with fieldwork collected in partnership with the users. Feedback has been provided and has been fruitfully employed in re-engineering the services to better meet the users' needs. It is clear that several iterations of service provision and collection of feedback are required before services become fully integrated into the users' working practices. However, the users have begun to effectively use the simpler monitoring services, while the more innovative higher level mapping products are under evaluation.
Five users signed Service Level Agreements in 2003-2005
| International Users | |
| FAO/GIEWS: | UN agency for operational monitoring of world food supply |
| Regional Users | |
| SADC-RRSU: | Early warning system for 14 countries of Southern Africa |
| CILSS-AGRHYMET: | Technical support agency for 9 countries of West Africa |
| National Users | |
| CSE, Senegal: | Min. Env. agency for agri & environmental monitoring by satellite |
| MOAIFS, Malawi | Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security, Malawi. |
Future Visions
By 2015, GSE Food Security aims to have brought the full potential benefits of the European EO space segment and service industry to support the food-aid and food-security monitoring systems employed by decision makers.
Complementary projects – EC/National
Many agencies around the world already use EO data to assist in food security decision-making. GSE Food Security services are in cooperation with these activities, aiming to enhance what already exists by filling gaps, and bringing new techniques to the level of operational provision.
Existing complementary EO based services are provided by:
- EC-JRC MARS-FOOD project
- UN-FAO METART
- US FEWS-NET Africa Data Dissemination Service
- US Dept Agriculture PECAD
