Arising from its 36th
Executive Meeting held in Geneva the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) has
launched a new tool to fight food insecurity tagged the Early Warning Crop
Monitor (EWCM), reports NaijaAgroNet.
The GEO’s United States
(US) Co-Chair, Dr Kathryn Sullivan, affirmed this at the end of the meeting held
between March 8 and 9, disclosing that this tool was developed by the group’s Global Agricultural
Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM), established by the G-20 Agriculture Ministers,
under the Early Warning Crop Monitor (ECWM) which provides consensus reports on
crop conditions in countries at risk of food insecurity in Central and South
America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and East Asia.
NaijaAgroNet gathered
that the March edition of EWCM bulletin reports that countries in Southeast
Asia, and even more so in Southern Africa, face severe droughts attributed to
the on-going El Niño.
Also, NaijaAgroNet
gathered that Dr. Sullivan who doubles as the Administrator of the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pointed that EWCM, together with the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for the Agricultural
Market Information Service (AMIS), will ultimately monitor crop development in
124 countries, totalling about 94 per cent of the world’s agricultural area. GEO
noted that both reports synthesize remote sensing data, field observations and
environmental modelling conducted by more than 40 international, regional and
national organizations; whereas the monthly reports are made available to
decision-makers across the food security community and to the commodities markets.
She said that concerns
over food and water security are rising globally, pointing out that "Ensuring that
agricultural industries around the world have access to the best science, data,
tools and resources is essential as we work to increase food security and
mitigate the effects of droughts and floods. The GEOGLAM Early Warning Crop
Monitor provides decision-makers with essential information, gathered from
satellites, buoys and other observational tools, to be ready, responsive and
resilient against extreme weather and water events."
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