http://www.fao.org/inaction/improve-agriculture-monitoring-systems-for-iran Following the launch of the project to enhance Agriculture Monitoring Systems by FAO and Government of Iran, an inception workshop took place, for introducing the topic, its priorities, objectives, outcomes, methodologies, planned progresses, outputs and participants. These presentations are the related available documents. © FAO: http://www.fao.org

2. Improved Agricultural Monitoring Systems
through satellite imagery for IRAN
WSH OBJECTIVES AND PROJECT OVERVIEW
Sergio ZelayaBonilla
Senior Land & Water Officer
Head of Geospatial Coordination Unit (CBDS)
Climate, Biodiversity, Land & Water Department (CB), UNFAO
PROJECT

3. PURPOSE:
• Build common understanding of the project specific objectives
and expectations and the agreement on the approaches.
• Describe the concept, objective, expected outputs
and implementation strategies of the project.
• Discuss of the implementation plan of the project
with identified sources of financial resourcing.
• Provide a briefing of the current project progress in the inception phase.
• Discuss the development of an Exit Strategy for after the end
of the project and possibility to extend the activities to national
level through the development of an UTF project.
INCEPTION WORKSHOP

4. • Provide policy and technical assistance to the Iran
Government in a broad range of disciplines in sectors
pertaining to the Organization’s mandate.
• Supports the country’s priorities in line with:
 National Development Planning documents,
 Sixth National Development Plan 2017-2021
 Organization’s Strategic Objectives and
 Relevant Regional Initiatives.
• Support development of Integrated Strategic Programmes, in line with FAOIR’s
long term mission seeking “to inspire and engage partners in promoting lasting
solutions for sustainable development” in the following four priority areas:
1. Sustainable and Climate-smart Agriculture,
2. Food Security and Food Safety,
3. Inclusive and Resilient Rural Development, and
4. Knowledge-based Economy and Society.
FAO in Iran

5. From a technical consultation from FAO resulted:
• The extreme climate events in Iran are impacting agriculture
and affecting agricultural production in the country.
• Primary data collection in the country has some shortages
and is a major challenge in the agriculture sector.
• Conventional data collection approaches are still in place within
MOJA with less focus on the use of innovative technology.
• Mixed data quality of existing survey results, lack of data
documentation, and not all data collected are of good quality.
• Not all data collection processes are based on sound
methodologies, including up-to-date sampling frames.
• Modelling and forecasting methods are often obsolete
and advanced outlier detection methods are often missing.
• Although there are good RS and GIS human capacities,
the operational monitoring of agriculture on a regular
basis using Remote Sensing is limited.
Rationale

6. WHAT
The extreme climate events in Iran are impacting agriculture and affecting its production.
The several environmental trends suggest an urgent need for a comprehensive, systematic
and accurate agricultural monitoring system in the country.
HOW
Adoption of new strategies for improved agriculture production and its monitoring;
integration of RS technology into the national/provincial agriculture offices for agriculture
monitoring and statistics generation.
The availability of reliable information on natural resources and agriculture for its monitoring
and analysis is indispensable to development and implementation of such strategies.
TCP Funding : 489,000 USD - 24 Months.
Support

7. IMPACT
Agriculture monitoring and production system are
strengthened and Government adopts improved strategies
for increasing and diversifying production potentials.
GOAL
Develop sustainable methods, tools and technology, that
improves the quality of agriculture information and reporting
based on the integral use of geospatial technology.
OUTCOME
Established national and operational agriculture monitoring
system that improves quality of agriculture information and
reporting based on geospatial technology
Project overview

8. • Develop a prototype demonstrator
operational agriculture monitoring system.
• Identify state of the art methods and strategy
for acreage and yield estimation optimized
through the use of remote sensing.
• Testing and monitoring of a range of crops for the
selected provinces as a demonstrator for the larger UTF.
• Improve agriculture information and reporting approach.
• Enable MOJA to collect near-real time crop field
information and use it operationally for the monitoring.
• Transfer and exchange of knowledges and
development solution on agriculture monitoring.
Objectives

9. • the Country Programing Framework (CPF)
Government priority 1:
“Environmental Sustainability of Agricultural
and Rural Development Management Practices
is ensured”.
• the MOJA ongoing key priorities
related to agriculture monitoring.
• improving the agriculture production
and provide economic benefits.
• support the transition to sustainable
agricultural sector production systems
through monitoring, statistics, assessment
and analysis.
• support the progress of the techniques,
policy and investment conditions.
Contribution to…

10. AT A NATIONAL LEVEL MOJA and ITCC will benefits from the:
• development of the innovative and sustainable agriculture
methods integrated with geospatial technology.
• identification and design of a robust agriculture statistic
and data collection country-wide system.
• integration of remotely sensed data into the
national/provincial agriculture offices.
• improved existing crop forecasting and reporting
capability at a provincial level (selected provinces).
• provision of satellite-based estimates of area of crops
and other vegetation indices and natural resources status.
• development of a regularly scheduled series of actionable
crop production reports developed by the agriculture
provincial offices.
Benefits

11. AT A LOCAL LEVEL Communities and farmers will benefits
through:
• agriculture information, disseminated correctly
to the local agriculture offices and as result
to the farmers and communities.
• communication facilities and strengthened
transmission of agriculture monitoring approaches
to the local level.
• the improved national forecasts and estimates
of crop yields methodologies, improved information,
bulletins, etc.
• warnings related to agriculture, water
and drought management etc.
• the linkage to provincial and farmer level users.
Benefits

12. Establish an operational and innovative national AMS based
on sustainable methods, tools, geospatial technology and in situ data.
Identify state of the art methods to improve national forecasts
and estimates of crop area and yields.
Improve the existing crop forecasting and reporting capability
at the provincial level.
Enhance national capacity on crop yield forecasting
and estimation integrated with geospatial technologies.
Enhanced approaches for agricultural monitoring.
Project’s Strategy

13. Innovative agriculture monitoring
systems are developed
GOAL
Establish an operational national AMS
based on sustainable methods, tools,
geospatial technology and in situ data.
• All kinds of available existing
agriculture, geographic and
administrative information on crops
will be collected and validated.
Output 1

14. GOAL
Identify state of the art methods, and suggest
improvements moving forward, to improve
national forecasts and estimates of crop yields.
• generate crop area and yield estimation
for the selected sites based on RS.
• verify the quality of the major crop
production information.
• develop rice crop masks for some
selected sites based on RS.
• identify the most appropriate
type of area frame.
Output 2

15. GOAL
Enhance provincial capacity for improved crop estimates and integrate, more fully, the use
of remotely sensed data into the provincial crop reporting services.
OUTPUT
Provincial crop forecasting, reporting services and capability for selected provinces are
improved:
• provide crop area and yield estimations through
regular and timely market-oriented reports
• provide actionable information useful for decision-making in selected provinces
Output 3

16. Capacity Development (CD) Component:
transfer of relevant methods, good practices and learning
materials and, exchange of development solution on
agriculture monitoring optimized by use of geospatial
technology.
The CD strategy will provide technical certification through
MOJA and incorporate teaching skills development.
The Strategy Incorporates:
• distance learning
• on the-job-trainings
• training of trainers (from main department/
division staff) who can then cascade down
training of others (e.g. to provincial staff).
Output 4

17. MOJA has the overall responsibility for the agriculture monitoring tasks in the country.
It consist of:
• a wide network of provincial and district offices which are
closely linked with the headquarters in Tehran.
• close working relations with other related institutions
whose role will be instrumental in the project implementation.
FAO Representation in Iran has the overall operational responsibility to ensure smooth
implementation of the project.
The project will establish linkages with the Provincial Agriculture offices which are
involved in research. They work with provincial extension departments, universities
and directly with the farmers.
Institutional framework

18. • The project will also develop
an internal Results Based
Monitoring and Evaluation
(M&E) system and integrate
this with the broader M&E
system of the MOJA.
• The M&E system will ensure
that project data are collected
in a timely manner and impacts
are monitored in the longer term.
Monitoring and evaluation
• The M&E system will validate the data and information on targets set of the project,
make necessary modification and changes and establish final indicators for monitoring
future outcomes and impacts during the inception phase.
• The final set of indicators should, however, be approved by the Steering Committee.

19. 1. Provide technical support to the national
institutions to develop improved
agriculture monitoring system that will
provide the adaptation benefits and increased
economic value through production of timely
and accurate agriculture information
and strengthen capability to support
agricultural policies in the country.
2. Develop a substantial technical capacity
in the operational use of geospatial data
system for the agriculture monitoring and
analysis during the lifetime of the project.
Project sustainability

20. The project’s sustainability will be served through significant inputs of capacity development
using a hands-on approach, with a clear emphasis on government staff performing relevant work.
3. Facilitate sharing of good practices,
lessons learned and knowledge
management and provide necessary
policy advocacy for integration of good
practices and replication in similar areas
by provision of additional government
and/or other funding.
4. Develop an “Exit Strategy” that addresses
how country government can move forward
and application and updating of tools, methods
and procedures for agriculture production
assessment and monitoring
after the project has ended.
Project sustainability

21. • Enhance National Institutions’ capacity.
• Improve agriculture production systems.
• Support agricultural policies and land use
planning and management.
• Improve the sustainable management
of agriculture and natural resources.
• Improve quality of statistics and reporting
system for decision-making.
• Understand, assess, predict, mitigate,
and adapt to climate variability and change.
• Improve water-resource management through
better understanding of the water cycle,
and combating desertification, etc.
Benefits

22. Sergio.ZelayaBonilla@fao.org
THANK YOU