Overview
This project aimed to support consultations with African agricultural and water management agencies to understand the needs, opportunities and gaps for using Earth observations (EO)-based services to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability, including through improved water use, and; develop a Roadmap for Digital Earth Africa (DE Africa) to deliver services tailored to these needs to improve productivity and build resilience.
DE Africa is an operational platform that makes EO data and derived products, with a very strong focus on food and water security, accessible to a diverse range of users across the continent, including policy makers, scientists and industry. At the time this project commenced, food security and water resource management were high priority topics and DE Africa products and services were positioned to enable country-level action.
In order to achieve and fully realise the benefits of EO products to users across Africa (from smallholder farmers to national level policy-makers), the project aimed to greatly improve our understanding of user needs and information gaps. This included how best to support uptake amongst national and sub-national policy and program makers and how to deliver information to farmers and farm extension officers that would empower them to take proportionate and timely management actions and interventions.
Project outcomes
Through stakeholder consultations in 6 countries, 3 pathways to impact for the DE Africa platform were identified:
- Connecting with smallholder farmers by recognising them as agents of food security, and engaging with them through a broader network of stakeholders in the food and water security sectors
- Enhancing the technical capacity of users through training, and incorporating the needs of end users as part of product co-design processes
- Developing and disseminating user-friendly knowledge and research products for public consumption and usage to address real world problems.
Through the consultation process the project also identified priority products and services needed to improve productivity and build resilience, and a roadmap was developed for DE Africa to deliver services tailored to these needs.
