Remote sensing for agriculture

Evaluation covers the period 10/79-10/81 and is based on site visits and interviews with Mission and host country personnel in Ecuador, Morocco, Sierra Leone, and the Philippines. The project has successfully transferred Area Frame Sampling (ASF) to the four countries, all of which have developed land use theme maps, drawn sample segments, and conducted a field survey of the sample segments in at least one agriculturally important province. Ecuador and Morocco plan to complete ASF for the entire country in 1982. Sierra Leone and the Philippines plan to expand ASF to many more provinces. Although the project has increased awareness of remote sensing and its role in ASF, much more technology needs to be transferred. The countries are still using outdated aerial photography; they lack both adequate remote sensing equipment and a sufficient number of trained professionals. Technology has also been transferred to the other countries participating in the project - Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Tunisia, Sudan, Liberia, Indonesia, and Bolivia. In some countries, the technology has had an impact on agricultural estimates; in others, it will soon have such an impact; and in still others, more work remains to be done. Project experience shows that ASF technology can be transferred to almost any LDC, but effective use of this technology requires an aggressive and imaginative approach. It takes 2-4 years to construct an area frame; once this is done, surveys can be completed quickly. One side effect has been the successful transfer of microcomputer technology, enabling rapid summarization of survey data. Missions in Morocco, the Philippines, and Ecuador have requested that the project be continued beyond its scheduled 1982 expiration and that greater emphasis be placed on remote sensing. A suggested follow-on is the development of more advanced image enhancement techniques, and for Morocco and the Philippines, movement to digital area measurements. It is recommended that a zoom transfer scope be purchased for Sierra Leone, a Sierra Leone counterpart be hired; and computer-enhanced LANDSAT be purchased for use in areas of Morocco that need stratification.