Abstract
Abstract. In Nepal, two thirds of the total population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and more than one third of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the agriculture sector. However, effective agriculture production across the country remains a serious challenge due to various factors, such as a high degree of spatial and temporal climate variability, irrigated and rain-fed agriculture systems, farmers' fragile social and economic fabric, and unique mountain practices. ICIMOD through SERVIR-Himalaya initiative with collaboration of Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) is working on developing a comprehensive crop monitoring system which aims to provide timely information on crop growth and drought development conditions. This system analyzes historical climate and crop conditions patterns and compares this data with the current growing season to provide timely assessment of crop growth. Using remote sensing data for vegetation indices, temperature and rainfall, the system generated anomaly maps are inferred to predict the increase or shortfall in production. Comparisons can be made both spatially and in graphs and figures at district and Village Developmental Committee (VDC) levels. Timely information on possible anomaly in crop production is later used by the institutions like Ministry of Agricultural Development, Nepal and World Food Programme, Nepal to trigger appropriate management response. Future potential includes integrating data on agricultural inputs, socioeconomics, demographics, and transportation to holistically assess food security in the region served by SERVIR-Himalaya.
Highlights
Agriculture is the most important livelihood activity in the HKH region, providing a substantial proportion of rural income and employment opportunities for its estimated 210 million inhabitants
A number of programmes use satellite observations for agricultural monitoring on a regional to global scale; examples include the crop forecasting system maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and food security monitoring systems such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Security Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), and the European Union Global Monitoring of Food Security (GMFS)
In the current study we employed the the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) acquired by the moderate resolution sensor Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometers (MODIS) at 16-day time interval and 250 m spatial resolution, a standard product coded as MOD13Q1
Summary
Agriculture is the most important livelihood activity in the HKH region, providing a substantial proportion of rural income and employment opportunities for its estimated 210 million inhabitants. A number of programmes use satellite observations for agricultural monitoring on a regional to global scale; examples include the crop forecasting system maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and food security monitoring systems such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Security Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), and the European Union Global Monitoring of Food Security (GMFS) These global and regional monitoring systems does not effectively caters the need at national and sub-national level. ICIMOD through its different regional program initiatives on NASA-USAID/SERVIR-Himalaya and AUSAIDKoshi Basin is focusing to strengthen the efforts of the agriculture ministry towards achieving reliable crop monitoring and drought early warning systems
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