The world is looking for durable and effective options to tackle global challenges such as climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss, food and water insecurity. While billions of people still face pervasive poverty, hunger and malnutrition, satisfying the increased demand for food is placing pressure on the world’s natural resources. Sustainable agricultural practices lead to direct improvements in the state of soil, land and water, and generate ecosystem benefits. Achieving all of this requires accurate, timely and integrated information to support the much-needed shift in natural resources management and agriculture production practices.

Building upon FAO’s existing information and data platforms, the new global crop mapping initiative - Soil-Land-Water digital Integrated Information System (SoLaWISe) - responds to this need to enable FAO Members and farmer producers have access to an integrated Soil-Land-Water Information System (SoLaWISe) supporting them in sustainable natural resources management and production at farm and landscape levels.

This special event will share FAO’s new initiative – SoLaWISe (Soil-Land-Water Digital Integrated Information System), as well the progress and know-how of other ongoing crop mapping initiatives. It will also help to discuss and explore potential partnership for global crop mapping.

EVENT FORMAT

The event will be organized in a hybrid format with the opportunity to attend the event in presence in FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy, or virtually. For in-person participation, please send the request to [email protected]. For virtual participation, please REGISTER HERE. 

The event will be held in English.

DRAFT AGENDA (09:00-12:30 CEST)

09:00 – 09:20

Opening Session

Introduction of the event, Lifeng Li, Director, Land and Water Division, FAO, event moderator

Welcome remarks, TBC

09:20 – 11:20

Technical Session: crop mapping initiatives

Moderator: Livia Peiser, Land and Water Officer, Land and Water Division, FAO

• Yield and production gap in agro-ecological zoning - data needs for spatial downscaling procedures, Gunther Fisher, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• WorldCereal, Zoltan Szantoi, European Space Agency (ESA)
• Crop monitoring in China, WU Wenbin, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
• Big Earth Data in support of crop mapping, ZUO Lijun, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
• Global yield gap atlas (GYGA), Hendrik Boogaard, Wageningen University and Research (WUR)
• European Soil Observatory (EUSO), Luca Montanarella and Arwyn Jones, Joint Research Centre, EU
• MARS - Monitoring of Agricultural Resources and contribution to GEOGLAM, Stefan Niemeyer and Felix Rembold, Joint Research Centre, EU
• Geospatial Platform of FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative, Karl Morteo, Digitalization and Informatics Division, FAO

11:20-11:40

Keynote: Global Crop Mapping - SoLaWISe

Jippe Hoogeveen, Senior Land and Water Officer, Land and Water Division, FAO

11:40 – 12:20

Technical panel discussion

Moderator, Zhongxin CHEN, Senior Information Technology Officer, Digitalization and Informatics Division, FAO

12:20 – 12:30

Conclusion and Closure

Lifeng Li, FAO