To achieve sustainable food and nutritional security while maintaining or reducing financial and environmental costs, smallholder farmers need to be supported by high-tech systems. Low-cost but robust sensors mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) along with open source software constitute emerging solutions. To this end, a “proof of concept” is under investigation in Eastern Africa. A workshop held in Nairobi resulted in the establishment of a community of practice on agricultural UAVs in East Africa. First field mission was conducted in Tanzania. Field work has yet to take place in Kenya and Uganda once flight permits are issued. Salient advantages of small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), preliminary results and bottlenecks will be outlined in this presentation.

1. AIR-BORNE REMOTE SENSING AS A MONITORING TOOL
FOR SMALLHOLDER’S CROPPING SYSTEMS IN EAST AFRICA
Project Advances and Lessons Learnt
Presented by Dieudonné Harahagazwe, PhD

2. Contents
• Project Aim
• Achievements
• Regulatory frameworks
• Way forward

3. The aim of this “proof of concept”
project is to develop and validate
a low-cost UAV-based remote
sensing tool for crop area
determination (ARSIS) using
sweetpotato as a pilot crop
PROJECT AIM

4. 2002
Balloons:
• Hot air.
• Hellium.
2008
Model planes:
• Combustion.
• Electric. 2009
Helicopter:
•Combustion.
•Eléctric. 2012
Multirotor:
• Quadcopter.
• Octocopter.
How did we get here?
4

5. 1. A community of practice in East
Africa
2. The UAV-RS platform
3. First field mission
ACHIEVEMENTS

6. ILRI Campus, Nairobi, Kenya
October 7, 2014
Ach.1: A community of practice

7. Workshop objectives
How can ARSIS become part of the tools that improve
agriculture and the wellbeing of smallholder farmers?
Specific Objectives:
1) Learn what ARSIS means to each participants’
practice: core developers, application
scientists, end users & enablers
2) Identify networks of collaboration for the
community of practice in each country/region
3) Plan next steps

8. Community of practice on UAV for
agriculture in ECA region
Institutions generating the
innovation
Users of the Innovation
(Cost effective improved crop statistics
and
landscape mapping)
Users of the Information
(Better priority setting and budgeting)
• International Research Organizations
• University and National Research
Organizations
• Private Sector
• Governments and Public Institutions
• Regional Organizations
• National Agricultural Bureaus of Statistics
• Public Institutions
• International, regional and national
research and development organizations
• International and regional planning and aid
organizations
• National, regional, districts, counties, and
local organizations
• Research and development organizations in
agriculture

9. Theory of change
Innovation Flow & Feedback Loops
• Core
Developers
(Hardware &
Software)
Developing
• Application
Scientists (Exploring
Applications; Field
Experiments)
Exploring
Potential Users
• End users
• Enablers
Real world
Applications

10. Highlights of messages from the meeting
• Identified needs at smallholder farms:
crop area statistics, Yield assessment, Variety discrimination,
Early disease detection, Soil erosion and fertility assessment
and Irrigation performance
• Costs, accessibility, and user-friendliness matters
• Involving local institutions at different stages is a
must
• Walk the talk – e.g. test in making official statistics
• Complementarity with satellite imageries
• Stepwise – From simple to complex tools

11. Octocopter assembled using
imported parts
3D printed quadcopter
together with an open source
flight controller
1. The vehicle
January 2015 November 2015
Ach.2: The UAV-RS platform
(open source)

12. NDVI with TETRACAM ADC Micro NDVI with CIP Built CameraRGB Original Image – Canon EOS
2. The sensors
Reducing camera cost while improving image quality

13. Spectra CIP Spectroscopy Operating
Software for Windows
3. The interface - electronics
Spectra CIP Software

14. Mosaic produced
High Resolution Mapping using Stitching Algorithm
Image Stitching Software (open
source)

15. Ach. 3: Field mission in Tanzania

16. Aerial image taken with a regular digital camera

17. Identification of crops from image taken using regular camera

18. REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS
Regulatory
Framework
Community
of practice
Smallholder
farmers
Obtaining flight permits
is the most challenging
constraint in East Africa
due to lack of regulatory
frameworks

19. Applications for flight permits
Country Purpose Date of
process
initiation
Applicatio
n date
Response
date
Observation
Kenya Test the newly
assembled UAV
21/01/2015 27 January UAVs are on
ban in the
country until
regulatory
framework
released
Tanzania One week field
mission
27/01/2015 5 March 27 March Mission
completed
Uganda One week field
mission
27/01/2015 5 Nov. Mission
planned in
December
Rwanda 1 hour
demonstration
in a conference
27/7/2015 21 Sept. 28 Sept. Mission
completed
The most critical issue is to know from where to start the application

20. WAY FORWARD
• Planning and implementing joint work with
STARS Project
• Second workshop to take place in Mwanza,
Tanzania (March 2016) mainly focused on
advances in the theory of change:
– translational research to provide information in
the context of the decision makers
– identifying impact pathways, and
– Defining strategies for overcoming barriers
related to regulatory frameworks

21. The team:
R. Quiroz, C. Valdivia, H. Loayza, A. Bett, S.
Palacios, M. Balcazar, L. Silva, A. Posadas,
F. Mendiburu, V. Mares, C. Barreda,
M. Cruz, J. Alcazar, R. Morales,
E. Cheruiyot, D. Ramirez &
D. Harahagazwe
Thank you
For further information, please contact Dr. Roberto Quiroz at
r.quiroz@cgiar.org