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 for crop area and yield estimation using remote sensing and machine learning. 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 on the use of 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 an on-the-job training for MoALD officers on the use of remote sensing data and geospatial information technology. Objectives The training aims to provide participants better understanding of: Geo-information science and EO and their uses 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) Participants will also visit the ICT setup at ICIMOD operationalising crop monitoring and damage assessment systems. Expected participants A total of six nominated officials from MoALD are expected to participate in this training. Resource persons Birendra Bajracharya, Programme Coordinator, SERVIR-HKH, ICIMOD Faisal Mueen Qamar, Remote Sensing Specialist, ICIMOD Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, Senior Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Specialist, ICIMOD Kiran Shakya, Geospatial Application Development Specialist, ICIMOD Poonam Tripathi, Geospatial Training Analyst, ICIMOD Manish Shrestha, Hydrologist, ICIMOD Sravan Shrestha, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Associate, ICIMOD Sarthak Shrestha, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Associate, ICIMOD Background The UN Sustainable Development Goal 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 times of world food shortages, or during periods of surplus, monitoring and estimating crop acreage requires long-term efforts. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also include doubling productivity and incomes of smallholders as key targets. Estimates and forecasts of crop area and yield are of critical importance to policy makers for the planning of agricultural production and monitoring of food supply. 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 Date Programme 21 August 2023 Introduction and interaction with the ICIMOD team – Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Pre-training assessment and photo session – Poonam Tripathi, ICIMO Overview of SERVIR-HKH activities on agriculture and food security – Birendra Bajracharya, ICIMOD Earth observation tools and technology for agriculture and climate risk management – Faisal M. Qamer, ICIMOD GIS concepts and applications – Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Hands-on session Vector data exploration and visualisation in QGIS – Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD 22 August 2023 Remote sensing concepts and application – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, ICIMOD Hands-on session Exploration and analysis of rater data in QGIS – Sarthak Shrestha and Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Satellite data visualisation and interpretation – Sarthak Shrestha and Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Cartographic map production – Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD 23 August 2023 Introduction to Regional Drought Monitoring Outlook System and demonstration of National Drought Outlook – Sarthak Shrestha, ICIMOD Introduction to the High-Impact Weather Assessment Tool (HIWAT) and demonstration of Flash flood prediction Tool and Flood Inundation mapping tool –Manish Shrestha, ICIMOD Demonstration on Agricultural advisory dashboard – Kiran Shakya, ICIMOD Hands-on session Geospatial analysis for agro-ecological zonation using multi-criteria suitability –Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD 24 August 2023 Introduction of field data collection application Geofairy – Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Introduction of RiceMapEngine and demonstrate on its uses – Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Hands-on session Questionnaire development and the use of Geofairy – Sravan Shrestha and Sarthak Shrestha, ICIMOD 25 August 2023 Project work – Poonam Tripathi and Sravan Shrestha, ICIMOD Reflection on the overall training – Chet Bahadur Roka, MoALD Post-training assessment – Poonam Tripathi, ICIMOD Closing remarks – Birendra Bajracharya, ICIMOD