World food supply amid a pandemic
Part-1: Monitoring world’s crop conditions with satellite imagery
Like in many other human activities, the measures put in place to slow down the spread of COVID-19 have also affected the food supply chain — in different dimensions of it — such as transportation, manpower supply or cross-border trade. GEOGLAM Global Crop Monitor tool allows to monitor agricultural conditions of main crops worldwide — and it can be accessed at the Earth observation Dashboard — a platform developed by ESA, NASA and JAXA to strengthen our global understanding of the environmental and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the Crop Monitor tool has been increasingly used in lieu of on-the-ground validation of crop conditions.
Explore agriculture information
The COVID-19 Earth observation dashboard — is accessible at eodashboard.org. Accessing agriculture data requires only three simple steps. On the top left panel, 1) Open indicators, and select the indicator 2) Cropped area-Global. This will generate the respective map in the right side panel that you can 3) enlarge and explore clicking on the upper left button.
The data, produced by the Group on Earth Observation’s Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) Global Crop Monitor uses remote sensing data like global precipitation and soil moisture measurements (through many Earth observation missions described further below). This data has helped to reduce uncertainty, promote market transparency, and provide early warning for crop failures through multi-agency collaboration.
Crop monitoring throughout the world
Current estimates from GEOGLAM Crop Monitor data indicate the global food supply is adequate, as perceived during the early stage of the pandemic. While many countries experienced lockdowns, travel bans or even trade restrictions on crops as a consequence of the novel coronavirus spread, most farmers were able to continue operations due to the rural nature of farm communities and the relatively less labor-intensive cultivation techniques associated with key crops. During 2020, while dry conditions in parts of Europe, southern Ukraine, and southern Russia have impacted winter wheat yields, favorable harvests in North America, India, China, and elsewhere in the Black Sea region have offset those reductions. This year, the southern hemisphere is showing generally favorable conditions for maize (with some dryness affecting crops in South America) and conditions in South Africa are exceptional. Rice and soybean conditions are generally favorable (with some exceptions to some areas in southeast Asia and Argentina, respectively). In the northern hemisphere wheat production is affected due to persistent dryness conditions.
However, the spread of the coronavirus did have an impact on the ability of governments and agricultural organizations to perform in-person field surveys of sowing, crop progress, and harvesting. Providing evidence through satellite data that overall global production of the major staple crops is adequate has been critical during this time of uncertainty. This reinforced the need for strong remote sensing capabilities.
Central and South America — Resiliency throughout a pandemic
Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC) is the World’s largest net food exporting region. LAC have proved “remarkably resilient” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensured adequate food supplies and stable food prices in global markets. Most farmers were able to continue producing, and the challenges on worldwide food supply were mostly in the downstream of the supply chain — as a consequence of mobility restrictions and sectors of economy being closed down — causing bottleneck on food distribution or disruption to food flows.
East Africa — facing several threats at once
The overall impact of the pandemic on agricultural production of major grains within in East Africa, so far has been generally limited, and supplies of staple foods are reported to be sufficient. However, production has been disrupted in some areas through COVID-19 restrictions, which caused labor supply shortages, disrupting supply chains, limiting farmers’ access to seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. This resulted in reported declines in planted area and yields in Ethiopia, Somalia and elsewhere across the region. Besides COVID-19 and socio-economic challenges, agricultural production in East Africa was also impacted 2020 by flooding, desert locusts and poor rainfall. Dry conditions are forecast to continue from March to May —for which Earth Observations are an important tool for continuous monitoring and assessment of crop conditions.
The plethora of Earth observation data behind
The GEOGLAM Crop Monitor contributes to the FAO Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) — an inter-agency platform established nearly 10 years ago to enhance food market transparency and policy response for food security. AMIS data is mainly based on statistical and market data, and GEOGLAM is adding information derived from Earth observations (EO) acquired from spaceborne, aerial and other platforms at different spatial, spectral, and temporal intervals — which has enabled to monitor the major producing nations of four primary crops: wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans.
Above is the set of EO data (as well the corresponding satellite missions, space agencies — ESA, NASA and JAXA, research institutes, alliance of multidisciplinary scientists and food security networks providing them) that support the creation of EO-based information that contributes to AMIS agricultural information.
“(…) being able to predict unexpected shortfalls [of global supply] is the single most important task to guarantee global food security”
This information has helped lessen global concerns over food security during the novel coronavirus pandemic. As explained by Abdolreza Abbassian, Secretary of AMIS and a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization senior economist, “assessing the global supply situation and being able to predict unexpected shortfalls is the single most important task to guarantee global food security”.
Earth observation based data from GEOGLAM Crop Monitor is thus playing a fundamental role, as it provides evidence-based, credible and timely information on world crop conditions. On the Part 2 of the ‘World food supply amid a pandemic’, we will address how to monitor other agriculture indicators such as planting and harvesting, through the eodashboard.org and its twin platform race.esa.int. Stay tuned!
