Drone used during the training at MAEU, Meiktila, Myanmar, ©FAO/Roberto Sandoval

FAO Myanmar is  collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI) and the Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU) of the Ministry of Education to promote the application of innovative technologies to enhance DRR/DRM in the agriculture sector through utilization of Drones.

In this regard, a training for the recently established MOALI Drone Mapping Team of 30 inter-disciplinary experts from different departments of MOALI has been organized by FAO in collaboration with MAEU. The training focused on operations and applications of drone mapping technology to DRR in agriculture.

“By using drones we will be able to update the maps, measure the fields and health of the crops. It can be done by analyzing quality images taken by the drones“, said U Nay Win, Assistant Director, Department of Agriculture (DoA), MOALI. “This is definitely useful training for the future”.

Prior to the training in Meiktila, the MOALI Drone Team, a subset of the bigger MOALI DRR Task Force, was established by the Government with FAO technical assistance and in partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center.

FAO Myanmar initiated the application of drones on DRR/DRM in agriculture in September 2016 following the monsoon floods in Magway region. Considered as the first UN agency to utilize drones in the DRR for agriculture in the country, data gathered from drone missions with MAEU helped to improve the design of flood response activities. Following the success of the Magway Region drone mapping activities, FAO again partnered with MAEU in March 2017 and carried out mapping activities in selected landslide and erosion prone areas in Chin state.

“The use of drones for DRR in agriculture is an important step towards strengthening country capacities in the area of risk and damage analysis, which will be particularly beneficial for communities that live in regions prone to natural disasters”, said Mr Andrea Berloffa, FAO Senior Resilience Coordinator. “FAO will further strengthen its alignment with Government bodies – MOALI and MAEU, to continue providing technical assistance through the application of innovative technologies that can enhance DRR/DRM in Myanmar.”

The above mentioned innovative work is based on FAO’s experience from the Philippines and was made possible through financial support from the Government of Japan and UN CERF that in 2016 provided funding that supported FAO’s emergency response and resilience building activities in the conflict and disaster-prone areas of Myanmar.

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