From Sky to Soil: Young Agricultural Leaders Nourish FAS Satellite Data with Grassroots Truth

Accurate Crop Mapping in Tanzania: Strengthening Agricultural Systems and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is collaborating with university students in Tanzania on a pilot project to gather grassroots data on grain, oilseed, and cotton crops. This project aims to strengthen community agricultural systems, improve crop condition assessments using satellite imagery, and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Empowering Youth through YouthMappers

Fourteen YouthMappers, part of an international network of university-based chapters, spent four days in the Arusha area capturing data on 334 fields. Their activities included photographing, georeferencing, and identifying target crops. YouthMappers is a product under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that empowers youth to contribute to their communities.

A Multi-Agency Collaboration for Skill Building

The collaboration between FAS, USAID, and Tanzanian groups focused on building skills in field work, data sampling, and assessing agricultural conditions. The main objective was to create an agricultural library of ground-truth data from the regions of Arusha, Dodoma, and Mwanza. This initiative marks the first time YouthMappers has utilized its members’ skills to strengthen agricultural data.

Focusing on Target Crops and Crop Conditions

While Tanzania grows various crops, the project focused on locating target crops of FAS’ International Production Assessment Division (IPAD), such as corn, sorghum, millet, rice, and cotton. The team also observed variability in crop heights, indicating early or late rains, and monitored pest damage, particularly from the fall armyworm. This data is crucial for understanding crop conditions and the impact of seasonal rains, as well as responding to climate change and providing improved information for decision-makers.

Expanding the Project and Building Capacity

The Tanzanian YouthMappers network has collected data from 1,700 fields in the Arusha, Dodoma, and Mwanza regions since the project began. This data will be paired with satellite imagery from Sentinel-2, enhancing our understanding of crop conditions and climate change impacts. In May, the YouthMappers trained additional university students on geo-mapping techniques to further advance Tanzanian agriculture and achieve project goals in the Dodoma and Mwanza regions.

Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals

This partnership aligns with the FAS’s efforts to develop young agricultural leaders and strengthen Africa’s self-development and capacity building. By empowering tech-savvy youth leaders in African countries, projects like this contribute to the achievement of SDGs, particularly those related to sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, and inclusive and resilient food systems.

Presenting at the Africa Food Systems Forum

The YouthMappers will be presenting their findings at the upcoming Africa Food Systems Forum. This forum aims to strengthen African agricultural and food systems through inclusivity, sustainability, resiliency, and equity. The presentation will showcase the impact of this project and highlight the importance of youth engagement in achieving SDGs.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. SDGs addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article:

• SDG 2: Zero Hunger
• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 15: Life on Land
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

2. Specific targets under those SDGs based on the article’s content:

• SDG 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding, and other disasters, and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
• SDG 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
• SDG 8.6: By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training.
• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
• SDG 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.
• SDG 17.6: Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism.

3. Indicators mentioned or implied in the article:

• Number of fields photographed, georeferenced, and identified (indicator for SDG 2.4)
• Number of university students trained on geo-mapping with ArcGIS, OpenStreetMap, and Kobo Collect (indicator for SDG 4.7)
• Proportion of youth involved in the project who are in employment, education, or training (indicator for SDG 8.6)
• Extent of resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in Tanzania (indicator for SDG 13.1)
• Extent of land restoration and achievement of land degradation neutrality in Tanzania (indicator for SDG 15.3)
• Level of regional and international cooperation and knowledge sharing on science, technology, and innovation in agriculture (indicator for SDG 17.6)

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Table:

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Source: fas.usda.gov

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