Remote sensing for smallholders.
Location
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, South Sudan, and India.
Sector
Agriculture
Type of Investment
Grant
Project Stage
Pilot
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Remote sensing for smallholders in numbers
GIF grant
Farms that are less than 2 hectares
Number of people living on farms of less than 2 hectares