Electronic Field Data Collection in Support of Satellite-Based Food Security Monitoring in Tanzania
Abstract
In Tanzania agricultural extension agents traditionally collect field data on agriculture and food security on paper, covering most villages throughout the country. The process is expensive, slow and cumbersome and prone to data transcription errors when the data get entered at the district offices into electronic spreadsheets. Field data on the status and condition of agricultural crops, the population's nutritional status, food storage levels and other parameters are needed in near realtime for early warning to make critical but most importantly timely and appropriate decisions that are informed with verified data from the ground. With the ubiquitous distribution of cell phones, which are now used by the vast majority of the population in Tanzania including most farmers, new, efficient and cost-effective methods for field data collection have become available. Using smartphones and tablets data on crop conditions, pest and diseases, natural disasters and livelihoods can be collected and made available and easily accessible in near realtime. In this project we implemented a process for obtaining high quality electronic field data using the GeoODK application with a large network of field extension agents in Tanzania and Uganda. These efforts contribute to work being done on developing an advanced agriculture monitoring system for Tanzania, incorporating traditional data collection with satellite information and field data. The outcomes feed directly into the National Food Security Bulletin for Tanzania produced by the Ministry of Agriculture as well as a form a firm evidence base and field scale monitoring of the disaster risk financing in Uganda.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMPA11B1960N
- Keywords:
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- 1640 Remote sensing;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty;
- POLICY SCIENCESDE: 6319 Institutions;
- POLICY SCIENCESDE: 6630 Workforce;
- PUBLIC ISSUES