FAO Webinar Series: Earth observation data for agricultural statistics

Organized from March to May 2023, FAO Webinar Series on Earth observation data for agricultural statistics raised awareness of the FAO-EOSTAT project and highlighted FAO's work on earth observation for the production of food and agriculture statistics.

The purpose of this webinar series was to raise awareness of the FAO-EOSTAT project and highlight FAO's work in building countries' capacity on the use of Earth observation data for the production of agricultural statistics, thus contributing to the modernization of national systems and protocols.

It also discussed the main innovations introduced in the field of EO based crop statistics implemented by FAO through R&D and testing in countries in collaboration with the academia. 

These include:

1)    Standardization of EO methods to produce annual land cover/use maps

2)    Crop type mapping in the context of in-situ data scarcity

3)    Coupling of EO data with physical based crop yield modelling

Moreover, the series shed light on how the innovations brought by the EOSTAT offer a solution to overcome the challenges connected with the collection and predication of crop statistics (acreage and yield) using both traditional field survey-based methods and the EO based methods.

Finally, the webinar series provided a platform to enhance collaboration and potentially mobilize resources.

The FAO Webinar Series "Earth observation data for agricultural statistics" consisted of six webinar sessions:

Session 1:  EOSTAT project overall presentation

(8 March 2023, 15:30 – 17:00)

Organized jointly with the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians

Speakers: Pietro Gennari, FAO & Lorenzo De Simone, FAO

• Recording (Passcode: =Y9v=5WF)
• Presentation (Pietro Gennari)
• Presentation (Lorenzo de Simone)

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Session 2: Crop yield mapping and yield statistics

(20 March 2023, 15:30 – 17:00)

Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone

Guest:  Prof. Bruno Basso, Michigan State University

• Recording (Passcode: 4L1vtay%)
• Presentation (Lorenzo de Simone)
• Presentation (Prof. Bruno Basso)

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Session 3: Crop type mapping and acreage

(4 April 2023, 15:30 – 17:00)

Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone, FAO

Guest: Sophie Bontemps, Université of Louvain

• Recording (Passcode: f*v2Z^!n)
• Presentation (Sophie Bontemps)

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Session 4: Standardized land cover classification for land cover statistics

(13 April 2023, 15:30 – 17:00)

Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone, FAO

Guest: William Ouellette, CEO at SoilWatch

• Recording (Passcode: A2Y7&&Uu)
• Presentation (William Ouellette)

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Session 5: EO augmented survey design, in-situ data standards, and best practices in georeferencing

(27 April 2023, 15:30 – 17:00)

Speaker:

Lorenzo De Simone, FAO

Guest: Sophie Bontemps, University of Louvain

• Recording (Passcode: 4@c#56=D)

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Session 6: Crop field boundaries mapping using machine learning and very high-resolution data

(10 May 2023, 15:30 – 17:00)

Speaker: Lorenzo De Simone, FAO

Guest: Sherrie Wang, MIT

• Recording (Passcode: kf7Nh?QK)

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Simultaneous interpretation was provided in English and Spanish.