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Location

Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, South Sudan, and India.

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Sector

Agriculture

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Type of Investment

Grant

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Project Stage

Pilot

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Length of Investment

2018-2021

Investment Overview

To develop and evaluate methods to track plot-level productivity of smallholder farmers, with the aim to help target private and public interventions to boost their income.

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The Development Challenge

There are 400 million farms in low and middle income countries that are less than two hectares. These farms are home to more than a billion people, including some of the world’s poorest. Improving their productivity is critical to reducing poverty, but challenging to measure. This hampers the design, implementation and monitoring of agricultural policy and hinders public and private efforts at providing targeted extension services, credit and insurance.

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The Innovation

Researchers at Stanford University developed techniques to measure farm productivity using high-resolution satellite imagery. The techniques offer the possibility of near real-time, granular monitoring of small farm productivity over large geographical areas.

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Our Investment

GIF’s grant of $461,846 supported testing the accuracy of the techniques in countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, South Sudan, and India.

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Outcomes

The studies supported the validity and utility of the satellite-based methods, and provided guidance on calibration and implementation methods. The results were published in widely-cited papers. The researchers founded a public benefit corporation, Atas AI, that drew on these and other satellite technologies. Atlas AI has worked with national governments and international organizations, providing them with fine-scale agricultural and livelihood data.

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Remote sensing for smallholders in numbers

$461,846

GIF grant

400M

Farms that are less than 2 hectares

1 billion

Number of people living on farms of less than 2 hectares