Información geoespacial para lograr sistemas alimentarios sostenibles

Assessment of agriculture production through NAEZ and LRIMS and scenario development in the Republic of North Macedonia

The main goal of the project TCP/MCD/3602 is to improve agricultural production and increase the adaptive capacity of the Republic of North Macedonia, by establishing National Agro-Ecological Zoning (NAEZ), a Land Resources Information Management System (LRIMS) and Scenario Development to better inform policy at national level, and reduce climate risk through adaptation at local level. The strategy developed for achieving the expected outcomes includes three essential components:

  1. Strengthening institutional and technical capacity for monitoring and analysis of agricultural production systems and development of National Agro-Ecological Zoning (NAEZ) and Land Resources Information Management System (LRIMS).
  2. Strengthening agricultural analysis, communication, and physical and socio-economic scenario development for decision-making.
  3. Knowledge management, dissemination and application of information at local level, including integrating lessons learned into planning.

The expected impact is improved agricultural monitoring and land-use planning, better production systems and national policies. It is hoped that new strategies will be adopted by the government to increase and diversifyproduction potential and that recommendations and pathways for achieving sustainable and diversified land use will be developed.

Applied methodologies

National Agro-Ecological Zone (NAEZ)

FAO’s agro-ecological zoning (AEZ) is the main system for land resource assessment for application at global, regional, national and sub-national levels. The FAO agro-ecological zones (AEZ) methodology:

  • determines the agricultural production potential (rainfed or irrigated) and carrying capacity of the world’s land area;
  • comprises grid cells on a georeferenced map with uniform soil, landform and climate characteristics and evaluate the suitability of each of these zones for crop production under different input and management scenarios. The yield potential of the crops most suited to each zone determines the overall agricultural production potential of that zone;
  • uses a land resources information system (LRIS) to assess, for specified management conditions and levels of input, all feasible agricultural land-use options and to quantify anticipated production of cropping activities relevant to the specific agro-ecological context.

Land Resources Information Management Systems (LRIMS)

LRIMS is a data management and analysis system which integrates various functionalities and methodologies into one processing environment,LRIMS:

  • offers a suite of user friendly information management and analysis tools organized into a toolbox;
  • provides straightforward access to organizational data and metadata;
  • contains query, analysis and map-building functions that allow standardized analysis, monitoring and forecasting;
  • allows assessment of the physical/socio-economic conditions of the land and evaluation of the benefits and constraints of different options through the simulation of various scenarios.