Contribution to Agriculture & Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa Lilian Ndung’u /John Kiema/ James RCMRD 2nd AfriGEOSS Symposium

Outline RCMRD/SERVIR ESA Service Priority Areas Examples of ongoing AFS Projects National Early Warning Crop Monitor Agricultural Crop Mask Mapping for Kenya Frost Mapping and Forecasting The Land Potential Knowledge Systems Decision Support Tool for Kenyan Rangelands

RCMRD/SERVIR ESA Service Priority Areas Agriculture & Food Security Ecosystems & Landscapes Water & Related Disasters Weather & Climate

National Early Warning Crop Monitor Develop timely, actionable and easily interpretable products on crop conditions (feed into GEOGLAM crop monitor) Strengthen SDA’s capacity in Ag. Monitoring & Assessments Streamline field Data collection and reporting Customization to include country specific datasets and reporting metrics Develop food bulletin

Agricultural Crop Mask Mapping for Kenya Problem Lack of updated crop mask (current one is over 10 years old). Due to climate change & changing land use patterns, cropping zones have changed. Need to assess changes in crop production zones for better decision making. Milestones Validation completed in Mt Kenya, Coastal and Western areas. Stakeholders consultations done. Product Users FEWSNET Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries University of Maryland (AST)

Frost Mapping and Forecasting Problem Massive losses in the tea industry due to frost. The service predicts the likelihood of frost events in vulnerable areas. Milestones Development of 72hr forecasts; Daily Frost Monitoring; Development of the frost data collection mobile application and training stakeholders on its use. Increasing stakeholder network 7 new tea companies. Collaboration with APA insurance in development of a weather based tea insurance index. http://apps.rcmrd.org/frost/maps/ Estimated Frost Occurrence on 30th January 2017 Problem Massive losses in the tea industry due to frost prompted the development of the service which predicts the likelihood of frost events in vulnerable areas, using remotely sensed MODIS data and WRF Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model outputs to create of an algorithm for frost detection and prediction. Product Users: Kericho County Government; Kenya Tea Research Foundation; James Finlays; Sireet Tea; Eastern Produce of Kenya (EPK) Saraboit Tea; EMROK Tea; DL Koisagat Tea; Kapsimotwa Tea; Farmers Product Users: Kericho County Government; KTRF; Large-scale tea farmers; Small-scale farmers

The Land Potential Knowledge System (LANDPKS) Problem Lack of timely information for decision making on land use changes (land stress from population growth & climate change). Milestones Promoted use of tools in conferences and land management platforms Conducted awareness field exercise for KWS. Data collection of soil samples for analysis; Data provision to NMSU team Testing mobile apps Development of the LandPKS Story Map Need for Data Driven Decision making Product Users: NRT; SORALO; KWS

Decision Support Tool for Kenya Rangelands Very Low Low Medium High Very High   Potential Land Degradation maps for the Northern Rangelands Trust Problem Information on land use & change dynamics, degradation, long-term/seasonal/current vegetation conditions. Leveraging on co-developed surface water maps, invasive species maps and other ancillary data to provide detailed rangeland decision support system. Milestones Development of potential land degradation maps Development of methodology for vegetation productivity assessment Preliminary Stakeholders consultations done The Kenyan rangelands productivity is dependent on rainfall with many groups competing for the scarce resources. Deep Gulley formation in the rangelands. Product Users: NDMA; NRT; County Governments

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