Organiser: MoALD in collaboration with ICIMOD About the training The GIS and Statistics Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), Nepal, and ICIMOD’s SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative are co-developing an operational service using remote sensing and machine learning for 1) crop area and yield estimation and 2) to establish information service to facilitate the data and knowledge communication among the relevant departments and broader user community. This will help design and impart specialised training on agricultural planning, crop mapping, flood inundation assessment, and drought monitoring for field-level staff and central professionals. The SERVIR-HKH Initiative, a joint initiative of ICIMOD, USAID, and NASA, is working on developing information services using Earth Observation (EO) and climate modelling technology. One of the key priority areas under this initiative is the capacity building of agriculture professionals to use new technologies to keep research aligned with recent technological developments. EO technologies have tremendous potential to support the implementation of long-term and large-scale research and development programmes and resolve data and information gaps in the agriculture sector, which include status and changes in land use, agricultural production, and resilience for food security, among many other aspects. As part of the capacity-building work, we are organising a provincial training in collaboration with MoALD on using remote sensing data and geospatial information technology. Objectives The training aims to provide agriculture professionals from MoALD with a better understanding of: Using Geo-information science and EO in crop monitoring and damage assessment SERVIR-HKH approach on in-season crop mapping and introduction to the related tools on field data collection and crop classification apps (Geofairy and RiceMapEngine) Training MoALD professionals on the methodology for collecting field data and collecting field points using a mobile application (Geofairy) Expected participants A total of 30 nominated officials from MoALD are expected to participate in this first part of capacity building training on Nepalganj, Banke, and 7 MoALD officials on field data collection training and field orientation in Dhangadi, Kailali Resource persons Ministry of Agriculture of Livestock Development (MoALD) Chet Bahadur Roka, Senior Statistics Officer, Chief of Agriculture GIS Section, MoALD Richa Shah, Agri-Economist, MoALD ICIMOD Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, Senior Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Specialist, ICIMOD Poonam Tripathi, Geospatial Training Analyst, ICIMOD Sravan Shrestha, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Associate, ICIMOD Rajesh Shrestha, Programme Associate, ICIMOD Background The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (“Zero hunger”) aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. The Government of Nepal (GoN) recognises the prevailing situation of food insecurity across the country and attaches high importance to ensuring food security for all. However, there is a need to build upon significant capacity in food security planning, monitoring, and evaluation within the GoN to enable it to provide reliable and timely information to support planning and policy decision-making processes. Monitoring and estimating crop acreage at a national scale is required to determine the national or sub-national food demand and supply balance and to gauge food security. Whether during world food shortages or during periods of surplus, monitoring and estimating crop acreage requires long-term efforts. The SDGs also include an upswing in the productivity and incomes of smallholders as key targets. Policymakers rely heavily on forecasts of crop area and yield estimates to plan agricultural production and food supply monitoring. The operational use of open-source satellite-based and model information to monitor climate and crops at daily and seasonal levels for integrated analysis of crop performance provides a cost-effective means to support decision-making processes. Agenda 5–8 February 2024 | Nepalgunj, Banke 9–10 February 2024 | Dhangadhi, Kailali Date Programme 5 February 2024 9:00 – 17:00 Introduction and interaction with the ICIMOD team – MoALD Pre-training assessment and photo session – Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Welcome remarks – MoALD Overview of MoALD and ICIMOD collaboration on rice area estimation on terai belt- MoALD SERVIR-HKH activities on agriculture and food security – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, ICIMOD Tea break Earth observation tools and technology for agriculture and climate risk management – Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD GIS and RS concepts and applications – Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Lunch Hands-on session QGIS installation Vector data exploration and visualisation in QGIS – MoALD, Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD 6 February 2024 9:00 – 17:00 Reflection from the Previous day Hands-on session Vector data exploration and visualisation in QGIS – MoALD, Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Lunch Exploration and analysis of raster data in QGIS –MoALD, Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Satellite data visualisation and interpretation –MoALD, Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD 7 February 2024 9:00 – 17:00 Introduction to yield estimation methodology – Prasad Bandaru, USDA (Virtual) Introduction to Regional Drought Monitoring Outlook System and demonstration of National Drought Outlook – Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Hands-on session Cartographic map production – MoALD, Poonam Tripathi, Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Geospatial analysis for agro-ecological zonation using multi-criteria suitability –Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Project Team – Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD 8 February 2024 9:00-1:00 Project work – Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Reflection on the overall training – Chet Bahadur Roka, MoALD Post-training assessment – Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Certificate distribution. Closing remarks – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, ICIMOD/ MoALD Training on field data collection application using Geofairy in Dhangadhi, Kailali Date Programme 9 February 2024 9:00 – 17:00 Introduction of field data collection application Geofairy in Dhangadhi – Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Hands-on session Questionnaire development and the use of Geofairy – Sravan Shrestha and ICIMOD 10 February 2024 9:00 – 17:00 Field data collection testing for wheat crop using Geofairy