1. Jetske Bouma, Peter Verburg WP10: Environmental Monitoring to Support Agriculture co-leads: JRC (Ispra) / VU-IVM (Amsterdam)

2. VU-IVM  IVM is an interdisciplinary environmental research institute with approx. 100 researchers We have our own MSc program ERM (link??). Strong focus on link between science and policy/practice  IVM has a leading role in international Global Environmental Change networks: the Global Land Project (IHDP/IGBP) and the Earth System Governance Project (IHDP)  The institute has a strong background in land use, water, biodiversity, economics, community management research Examples include the FP7 projects: Combioserve, LiveDiverse (biodiversity, community management) WHaTeR, ADAPTS project (adaptation to climate change in Africa) RESPONSES, VOLANTE, RUFUS, TURAS, CLAIM (land use, adaptation, rural development)

3. 3 Environmental Monitoring to Support Agriculture Citizen monitoring of agricultural parameters (meteo, drought, yield, management, (markets?)) to benefit farmers and provide early warning and yield information Two applications:  Urban agriculture  Drought monitoring and food security

4. 4 Issues addressed in both themes  Define user requirements of the stakeholders  Monitoring design and architecture (the application + data processing procedures)  Application implementation (building and deployment) Tailor means of deployment to stakeholder needs  Evaluate deployment/uptake efficiency  Evaluate data quality/use (strengths and limitations)  ‘business plan’ for further deployment and open data access

5. 5 Environmental Monitoring to Support Agriculture Two themes:  Urban agriculture  Drought monitoring and food security

6. 6 Urban agriculture  Measure light intensity, relative humidity, moisture and temperature  Create maps of microclimates in urban areas to support urban farmers

7. WP10: Drought monitoring and food security Peter Verburg and Jetske Bouma

8. 8  Involve farmers in Africa’s semi-arid regions in drought monitoring and crop yield predictions….  …. supply them in return with climate forecasts and early warning information on possible droughts.  WP10 will Assess information needs and monitoring capacity of (subsistence) farmers in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia (part of FP7 WhaTeR project) Develop tools to support farmers in collecting ET/rainfall data and sharing crop calendar and cropping patterns information Integrate this information in crop yield and drought forecasting models Develop tools to share weather forecasting information Objective

9. 9 Approach Develop applications for sharing weather forecasts Develop mobile phone applications for monitoring Farmers in semi-arid Africa (FP7 WHaTeR project) Crop/yield info Crop calendars Rainfall/ET Climate forecasts Drought warnings Drought monitoring and food security agencies (FAO etc.)

10. 10 Division of tasks Drought monitoring and food security  IVM-VU: Assessment of local capacity and needs  IIASA: EPIC Crop yield modelling and RMS  Alterra; drought index and RMS  Evenor/Sensaris: Sensor development  SAP: market conditions Cashew farmers Urban agriculture  JRC  ULUND  Evenor/Sensaris/Quirci  Univ of Ioannina / Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche

11. 11 Innovations  Tailor similar applications for very different communities/environments  Two major issues on global agricultural agendas: urban agriculture and global food security/drought  Two way information flow with stakeholders on two sides: empower and inform farmers  collect early warning systems (NGO’s/global agencies)  Evaluate added value of citizen observatories to RS indices  Evaluate use of information in decision making

12. 12 To be done  Specify pilots more clearly and determine case study locations in detail, mention stakeholders  Define tasks of participants clearly