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Six projects granted funding to improve food security with satellite data

The Netherlands Space Office has selected six project proposals for funding within the third call of the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) Facility. This facility is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is aimed at improving food security and economic development in 26 partner countries by using satellite data and geo-information. A total of around 70 concept notes resulted in 27 full project proposals being submitted for the third G4AW call. The following six projects have been granted a subsidy:

Burundi, GAP4A
Project: Bonnes Pratiques Agriculturales Pour Tous (Good Agricultural Practices for All)
Project coordinator: AUXFIN
The AgriCoach app will provide 100,000 smallholder farmers in the provinces Gitega, Kayanza and Karusi with information on a) WHAT crop to plant (Crop Selector); b) WHEN to plant and implement crop management practices throughout the season (Seasonal Monitor); and c)
 HOW to do this for optimal results (Best Practices database).

Cambodia, AngkorSalad
Project: Angkor SALAD - Geodata for sustainable vegetable farming Cambodia
Project Coordinator: ICCO South East Asia
The project aims to deliver services that help at least 100,000 vegetable farmers in Cambodia to increase their production, income and food security, and reduce their inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides. The service has 5 components: a) Irrigation Advice; b) Fertilizer Advice; c) Crop Planning Advice; d) Market Information and e) Khmer Good Agricultural Practice Compliance.

Ghana, SAT4Farming
Project: Satellites for Farming
Project Coordinator: UTZ
SAT4Farming targets 240,000 cocoa producers. The service creates, manages and monitors farm development plans (FDPs) for individual cocoa farms in Ghana. The service includes: a) Pre-FDP farm condition assessment: physical features, land classification, soil condition and plant condition; b) Monitoring FDP implementation: application of good agricultural practices (GAPs), soil management and replanting; c) Monitoring changes in farm condition: changes in soil condition, changes in tree architecture/health, changes in farm yield and changes in input efficiency.

Indonesia, SpiceUp
Project: Geodata for sustainable pepper farm management, SpiceUp
Project Coordinator: Verstegen Spices and Sauces
The project aims to deliver services that help 100,000 pepper farmers to increase their production, income and food security and reduce their inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides. The service includes: a) Drought/Irrigation Advice; b) Fertilizer Advice; c) Good Agricultural Practices Advice and d) Sustainable Tracing System.

Myanmar, MYVAS4AGRI
Project: Myanmar Mobile Value Added Services for Agriculture
Project Coordinator: Myanma Awba Group Company
The project targets 850,000 farming families or 1,020,000 individual users/food producers growing rice, green and black gram, maize, groundnut, potato and sesame. The following services will be provided: a) Daily localised weather data; b) Agronomic crop tips and alerts; c) Insights into the use of good agricultural practices; d)
 Market & product related information; e) Access to incentives.

Myanmar, SAM
Project: Smart Agriculture Myanmar
Project Coordinator: ImpactTerra
The project targets 567,500 food producers, of which 471,025 paddy farmers from Bago Division and 96,475 maize farmers from Shan State. The Golden Paddy platform will provide farmers with Knowledge (GAP, product information, pest and water risk indicators etc.), Markets (national and regional market prices, seller and buyer information etc.) and Financial Inclusion (financial literacy modules, agent profiles, financing options etc.) – completely customized based on crop, location and other characteristics of the registered user (farmer).

The G4AW programme will reach over 4 million smallholder food producers in 14 countries: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Myanmar, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam.

More details about G4AW projects can be found here. Information about the most recently selected projects will be added soon.