West Africa Crop Tours
2021 Fall IRL-Virtual Hybrid Crop Tour for West Africa
The purpose of the 2021 Fall IRL-Virtual Hybrid Crop Tour for West Africa is to use remote sensing technologies, field assessments, and key informants (KIs) to answer research questions. One objective is to use these methods to assess the crop conditions in the designated area and gauge their impact on food security to strengthen FEWS NET assumptions about the upcoming seasons. Another objective is to validate remote sensing products and pilot new methods for remote data collection under the constraints of travel restrictions.
2021 Structure and Dates
The West Africa crop tour will focus on flood affected regions of Nigeria (remote), and in person field assessments in the Liptako-Gourma region, and Lake Chad Basins (northern Cameroon, southern Chad). The timeline for the crop tour will be:
Planning: July 29-present.
Finalize concept note: Monday 10/2
Kick off Meeting (1 hour) - Thurs Oct 7th
Virtual Tour - Flood mapping Nigeria supplying historical flood risk information and monitoring country-wide flooding through the end of November.
Mid-October historical data available on the C2S platform
Early November Training on C2S dashboard
Field Assessment
Training on ODK from Tamuka (if possible)
Liptako-Gourma dryness affected area: 27 Sep - 1 Oct (complete)
N'Djamena, Far North Cameroon, northern Chari Baguirmi in Chad: 11-15 October
Dates of report writing - early-November (date/time TBD)
Final Readout to FEWS NET project- mid-November (date/time TBD)
During the virtual tour, the science team will conduct a sprint focusing on analysis over Nigeria using remotely sensed data to assess flooding hazards, risks and impacts. The EWT and Science Team will participate in meetings with Cloud 2 Street mapping to set up an interface that will allow analysts to answer these questions. The modeling and mapping will be conducted by Cloud-2-Street mapping. Cloud-2-Street will launch their dashboard and early testing with focal points and bi-weekly calls and training preparations in early to mid-October. A full platform onboarding webinar will take place in mid-October. C2S will provide their first report in mid-October, and then mid-November.