EVENT NAME Using Satellite Data as a Climate Adaptation Strategy For Food Security EVENT DATE: WEDNESDAY, 03 NOVEMBER, 2021 - 09:30 AM to 11:00 AM EVENT BY: SHAUNTICE MCCORKLE Posted Questions [09:53 AM] Rajendra Uprety asked : How developing countries small farmers get benefits from satellite data? How we can make it accessible to them? 9 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [09:49 AM] anonymous asked : How does one make the small holders understand the benefits of using such technology led data information and they ready for pay it as a service, seeing the tangible benefits from this technology 7 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [09:57 AM] John Scicchitano asked : How can climate data be used to advocate for climate finance for Africa? Most of global climate finance today supports climate mitigation in the developed world, but there is movement towards adaptation finance. 7 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [09:52 AM] Mari MANYARARA asked : About the decision suport systems 'How frequently do you update the system in line with the change in climate? Can you share an example were you used a decision supoort system? Does the systems also incoperate indegenous knowldge? 6 upvotes | 1 answer | 0 reply Faisal Mueen Qamer answered - Earth observation based systems are generally in 7-10 days intervals. Seasonal scale information is updated on monthly interval. Indigenous knowledge is rarely accounted at the information system level. But cropping patterns and calendars can be ingested. [10:24 AM] John Scicchitano asked : SERVIR seems to focus signficantly on government entities using earth observations for decision-making. How is SERVIR engaging with private sector - for example with insurance or other fintech companies? What is the status of SERVIR West Africa? Will it still be based within AGRHYMET in Niger? 6 upvotes | 2 answers | 0 reply pete epanchin answered - SERVIR is working to support agricultural microinsurance in Kenya. There's room for further exploration w/ private sector on insurance in additional geographies. USAID is working to complete the SERVIR West Africa award. Faisal Mueen Qamer answered - In HKH region, we are finding opportunities to engage with private sector specially in Insurance. [10:16 AM] Roger Day asked : For Molly - thanks for the great presentation! Where pesticides are insured, will the insurance cover all products? If it only applied to products with lower environmental and health risks, this could be a way to reduce use of highly toxic products we know are being used (both legal and illegal). 4 upvotes | 1 answer | 1 reply Molly E Brown answered - This is an excellent question - I don't think we have decided exactly which products will be covered. Given the ongoing threat of locusts and fall armyworm, and the lack of really targeted and effective pesticides for these, insurance is essential. Only Syngenta products will be covered at this point, and I do not know exactly which products are being covered. We are still figuring it out! Roger Day replied - Thanks Molly, that's interesting. Be happy to discuss further sometime. Roger [09:49 AM] Victor Kommerell asked : Decline in # weather stations in Africa: Does that include weather stations on NARS & CGIAR research stations & with 'model' farmers? 3 upvotes | 1 answer | 1 reply Walter Baethgen answered - I was refering to the weather stations that report to Global Institutions and that are thereafter used to produce Global Datasets that are widely used. Those Global Datasets have often very scarce observations from developing countries Victor Kommerell replied - Thanks. I thought so. Perhaps a workaround (around underequipped national METs) could be to work with CGIAR and NARS research station weather stations? [09:55 AM] Raymond Mutava asked : How do we get the Academic/Research Institutions to work with development partners who work closely with rural farmers? 3 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [09:58 AM] Alvaro Cabrera asked : Any practical example of putting together or linking the generation of information (meteo institutes in cities) with users (farmers in most of the cases iletrates or with low level of education) in order to understand and use info to make decisions? Any documented experience? 3 upvotes | 1 answer | 1 reply Walter Baethgen answered - Yes. Check the work in:"PARTICIPATORY INTEGRATED CLIMATE SERVICES FOR AGRICULTURE (PICSA)" https://ccafs.cgiar.org/index.php/resources/tools/participatory-integrated-climate-services-agriculture-picsa Alvaro Cabrera replied - Million thanks [10:03 AM] KRISHNA MOHAN KALLAPALI asked : I guess data poverty includes not just amount of data generated but also quality of data. 3 upvotes | 1 answer | 0 reply Walter Baethgen answered - Yes! That is why we always start our interaction with partners by establishing a good data quality control system [10:09 AM] Leslie Brooks asked : Thank you for the presentation- wonderful information about insurance here. How will the insurance program be monitored and implemented to make sure it doesn’t turn into the way insurance works in the US, and ensure it doesn’t cause drastic price increases in input supplies? 3 upvotes | 1 answer | 0 reply Molly E Brown answered - An excellent question - currently, only Syngenta supports this insurance thus it still must compete with all other products on the market. Thus farmers need to choose both the product, the price point and the support that the insurance will provide when selecting the product. As this is only a pilot, we hope to consider the overall impact of such insurance on the market. [10:40 AM] Otto Gonzalez asked : Question for Molly Brown - are there any examples of index insurance that is commodity specific, where the insurance is bundled with some type of checkoff payment farers make as part of a commodity association or cooperative? 3 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [09:55 AM] Dick Tinsley asked : While most agronomic research does an excellent job of determining what is possible it says nothing about what it takes to extend the results across the rest of the community. Thus what are you doing to assure your agronomic best management practices are operationally feasible? 2 upvotes | 1 answer | 0 reply Walter Baethgen answered - We start with a 'problem focus", "demand driven" approach as opposed to assuming that our information is useful to support farmers work. We start by understanding the farmers needs, the decision systems in place... [10:14 AM] Kamweti Mutu asked : What happens if satellite data on cropped area cannot be sufficiently rendered because of poor spectral visibility, e.g. dense cloud cover? Or force majeure conditions? Do the insurance products account for such data gap possibilities? Thanks. 2 upvotes | 1 answer | 0 reply Molly E Brown answered - An excellent question - remote sensing of vegetation from MODIS is available four times per day (2 MODIS sensors and 2 VIIRS sensors) therefore if it is persistently cloudy we have a higher chance of getting observations at some point in the 10 day period. I am sure there are some provisions for data gaps, but it is unlikely that 1) it will be extremely cloudy over the three different periods while still having 2) conditions requiring payout. [10:30 AM] Steve Ambrose asked : Is the satellite information verified and validated with drone or aircraft observations and/or do airborne observations assist in any way for crop assessments? Also, what is the role in assessing crop diseases/insects on production and insurance claims. 2 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:32 AM] anonymous asked : What are the biggest issues with data interoperability and integration? 2 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:45 AM] Casey L Harrison asked : Micro-insurance has been around for almost two decades. Why has it not been adopted by all small farmers? Please, discuss these limitations in more detail. 2 upvotes | 0 answer | 0 reply [09:56 AM] Dick Tinsley asked : Who is responsible to determing the labor requirements, how available is that labor and what are the rational compromises when that labor is not available? What are you doing to enhance the operational capacity of smallholder farmers? 1 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:06 AM] Dick Tinsley asked : In your insurance planning are you assuming farmers are complying with recommended best management practices? What happens if it takes 8 weeks for basic crop establishment? 1 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply Molly E Brown answered - Index insurance does not capture any local management - it is designed to be independent of farmer actions. If the weather or locust impact does not support productivity, there is a payout. So no, we do not assume anything regarding farmer actions. Dick Tinsley replied - but with a 8 week crop establishment time yield potential of the last field planted is only half that of the early established fields. Won't that impact the insurance payout? [10:11 AM] anonymous asked : How widely available and easily applied are these processed MODIS, Sentinel, CHIRP datasets? Is this demonstrating proof of concept for using this data but would require high levels of effort to translate for our project/program needs? 1 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply Molly E Brown answered - the rainfall and vegetation datasets are global - what differs are the availability of the cropped area maps. We can provide them in other regions with extensive crops without too much effort. [10:15 AM] anonymous asked : Just a comment. In Zambia, Viamo has worked with GIZ under the InsuResilience to promote weather index insurances through educational information via IVR including gamified content. There is a major lack of understanding of insurances even as a concept so the challenge remains in the USE PILLAR. 1 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply Molly E Brown answered - Totally agree! Index insurance is very hard to explain and support in regions with little trust in financial services. [10:55 AM] Casey L Harrison asked : What about bundling these products through professional farmer organizations? Not all "bundling" of technology services can be focused on the farmer only since this will still cost them out of necessary services. Thank you for the last response. It is important for us all to understand these limits 1 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:56 AM] Matthew Kleinhenz asked : Comment: I am a crop physiologist and extension specialist at a major university and very hungry for data "from the sky" to help develop stakeholder-facing (need-based) resources, yet have very limited access to those data. Imagine the difficulty others may have in accessing them. 1 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [11:03 AM] anonymous asked : Please, will the recording be shared with participants? 1 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:07 AM] Mari MANYARARA asked : In zimbabwe, where can i get more information about the macro resilience insuarance? 0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply Molly E Brown answered - Please email me at mbrown52@umd.edu and I will connect you with our local partners. Mari MANYARARA replied - Thank you [10:08 AM] anonymous asked : Are there any recommended studies that put a value on the impact of these kinds of index insurance products? 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:08 AM] Ganesh Neelam asked : the insurance companies as well as federal govts look mainly cereals and pulses, for small holders in vegetables, which also have challenge of pest attacks in higher side, how to look at insurance companies also working on taking risks to work on a quality business benefiting them and smallholders 0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply Molly E Brown answered - Agreed - this kind of insurance works extremely well for non-cereal crops, since it is product based and not geographic. Capturing the productivity via remote sensing will need to be carefully designed to ensure that the thresholds are related to pest and disease loss and not to management. [10:11 AM] Leslie Brooks asked : One more question: will the insurance payouts solely be based on the satellite imagery and early warning or will it also be adaptively based on an individual evaluation on a per-farmer basis of their specific needs? Ie- individualistic approach or just top-down based on imagery from afar? 0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply Molly E Brown answered - The point of index insurance is to have payouts that are based solely on the remote sensing data. If a grower would like indemnity insurance they will need to identify a local commercial organization offering that service. In many low income countries, however, this kind of agriculture insurance is not available or is extremely expensive. Hence the development of index insurance. [10:21 AM] Cathy Phiri asked : Thank you Faisal, has your work included working with rice seed companies, NARC or seed growers in Nepal, and if so, what outcomes did you see? 0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply Faisal Mueen Qamer answered - In-directly yes, We are collaborating with CIMMYT Seed programme. And CIMMYT is working closely with seed companies. Currently we are doing joint assessment of rice seed availability for next year after this unitimely rains. Cathy Phiri replied - Thanks! [10:23 AM] Ganesh Neelam asked : Were the satellite images able to predict the heavy rainfall before hand 0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply Faisal Mueen Qamer answered - In our observation the monthly forecast products were showing above normal rainfall but the intensity was not judged properly to communicate to farmer [10:24 AM] Ganesh Neelam asked : Were the satellite images able to predict the monsoons before hand for some action from damage 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:32 AM] Kennet Christensen asked : How do the various companies and organisations engage with the farmers to promote uptake, to educate on usage or solutions etc? Smartphones? Basic phones? Radio? Field staff? 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:33 AM] Anteneh Sarbanes asked : Awesome stuff Fasil. From my experience the terrain you are dealing with makes accurate remote sensing very difficult. I believe NASA and the USGS will have an Harmonized Landsat Sentinel product that would be great for your crop suitability models. 0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply Faisal Mueen Qamer answered - Anteneh, you are right terrain brings lots of challenges in our work specially for monitoring small patches of crops. but evaluating crop suitability is not very complex Anteneh Sarbanes replied - how are you monitoring surface water?? Are you using McFeeters NDWI or mNDWI [10:33 AM] Alvaro Cabrera asked : I was just going to ask about friendly apps available to keep in the loop or an exchange between information generators/providers and users/providers? Any experience in West Africa 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:41 AM] Matthew Kleinhenz asked : Can the speakers comment on the overall place of specialty/horticultural crop value chains and systems in the monitoring, product development, education/training, etc efforts they described? 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:43 AM] SINA YUN asked : Could you share your case study on index insurance? 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:44 AM] Loday Phuntsho asked : How can index based insurance cover crop damage by wild animals, for example? 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:49 AM] Fergal Mee asked : NOT A QUESTION _ rather a Thank You. All very interesting from all your contributors.. All seem keen and committed and more importantly understanding. Fergal Mee 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [10:59 AM] John Scicchitano asked : Following up on my question on climate finance: I believe we can better use such data as Adaptation Finance gains steam. We can show financiers how and where developing economies are impacted, in addition to how climate finance can mitigate impacts. j@PangeaAfrica.com Molly great to see FEWS ap 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply [11:04 AM] Holli Jordan asked : Thank you!! Excellent panel!! 0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply