AfriCultuReS

Status

Closed

Duration of the project

5 years (2018 – 2022)

Themes

Food security

Remote sensing

Agriculture 

Capacity Building

Decision making support

Total budget

327 500 USD

Beneficiaries
  • Decision makers
  • Technical teams (experts and technicians) from agriculture and water resources, weather, environment national institutions
  • CNCT, ONAGRI, INRGREF and CRDA
  • Farmers
  • Researchers and students
Countries concerned
Tunisia

Enhancing food security in African agricultural systems with the support of remote sensing

AfriCultuReS is a regional project funded by the European Union (H2020) and implemented in eight African countries by a consortium of 17 African and European organizations and universities. Designated as a partner, the OSS implemented the project activities in Tunisia.

The core objective of the project is to develop an integrated monitoring and early warning system to support decision-making in agriculture and food security in South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya,  Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda and Tunisia. 

At the regional level, the project has developed an Agricultural Geospatial Decision Support Platform (https://africultures-platform.eu), which harnesses Earth Observation data to deliver operational services across seven thematic areas: climate, agriculture, drought, land, livestock, water, and weather and which strengthens the effectiveness of existing monitoring and early warning systems across Africa.

In Tunisia, selected as a representative model of Mediterranean agricultural systems, AfriCultuReS has developed geospatial databases, detailed crop maps, and a national geoportal to guide agricultural planning. The initiative is coordinated by the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) in partnership with three national reference institutions: CNCT, INRGREF, and ONAGRI. Together, they leverage remote sensing to enhance agricultural monitoring and reinforce food security.

Financial partners
  • European Commission - EC
Technical partners
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR)
  • Centre for GIS and Remote Sensing, Univ. of Rwanda
  • Centre for Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Ghana
  • Centre Régional AGRHYMET (NE)
  • DRAXIS Environmental S.A. (GR)
  • Euardo Mondlane University (MZ)
  • GeoSAS (Ethiopia)
  • GMV Aerospace and Defence S.A.U. (ES) - leader
  • HCP International (NL)
  • LocateIT (KE)
  • Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale. Sapienza University of Rome
  • South African National Space Agency
  • Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SE)
  • University of Leeds (UK)
  • University of Sheffield (UK)
Key Achievements
  • Geoportal: decision support platform
  • Policy Brief on Earth Observation for Food Security in Africa
  • Advocacy for decision-makers on the potential of remote sensing for agriculture
  • More than 500 people trained in agricultural modeling and the use of geospatial tools to support the agricultural campaigns monitoring
  • Contribution to the production of scientific articles relating to the EO promotion for agriculture
  • Preparatory thematic studies: Survey on the needs of end users in Tunisia; Statistical estimates of agricultural production: classic vs. remote sensing approaches; Agricultural systems in Tunisia: risks and socio-economic aspects; Operational modeling of crop growth and yield estimation.
  • Agricultural model for forecasting agricultural yields in Tunisia.
  • Land cover map of Tunisia and its technical notice (10m resolution)
  • Detailed crop map for pilot governorates (10m resolution)
  • Crop geospatial databases at pilot project areas (2018 - 2022) and metadata notes.
Documents