New tech allows
for rapid and detailed assessments of vulnerable farmlands
In a bid to stay ahead of
the negative impacts of climate change, floods and typhoons on food security,
the Government of the Philippines and FAO have started using unmanned aerial
drones to assess where farmlands are most at risk from natural disasters and
quickly assess damages after they strike.
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Drones are capable of covering up to 600
hectares a day and should
significantly accelerate the process of risk
analysis.
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Under a pilot phase of the
still-fledgling project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture of the
Philippines and the FAO, two drones have already been sent soaring over the
Philippines provinces that have been affected by the current El Niño.
Some 25 FAO and government
technical experts are ready to be deployed across the archipelago to support
drone missions. They were recently trained over three weeks on how to fly the
drones and learned a range of remote aerial assessment methods.
The drones are equipped
with navigation and photogrammetric equipment that can generate detailed and
data rich maps from aerial photographs including Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index or NDVI, a formula used for assessing
vegetation and plant health.
Data gathered can be used
to see where agricultural systems are at particular risk from natural disasters
-- and identify ways through which such risks can be countered, for example,
through ground contouring, building retaining walls, or planting protective
vegetation.
Capable of covering up to
600 hectares a day, the drones should significantly accelerate the process of
risk analysis, according to Christopher Morales, Director of Field Operations
for the Philippines Department of Agriculture.
"It is efficient, it
saves time and we will be using a reliable source of data so that we can plan
and provide appropriate interventions and responses for our farmers in times of
disasters and calamities," he says.
"Additionally,
imagery generated from drone flights can reveal where agricultural
infrastructure projects and service facilities like irrigation or storage
facilities could be sited to best serve local farmers. The technology can also
potentially support in the assessment of coastal and forest areas." said
Jose Luiz Fernandez, FAO Representative in the Philippines.
A new tool for countries
at risk from natural disasters
The Philippines is among
the world's most at-risk countries for tropical storms and other disasters.
Over the past decade,
earthquakes, typhoons and floods have claimed thousands of human lives and
periodically left parts of the archipelago's infrastructure and economy in
tatters.
Such disasters impact
heavily on farms and food systems, leaving people without food in their
immediate aftermath and undermining food production capacity for years
afterwards.
Approximately 20 strong
typhoons affect the Philippine Area of Responsibility each year. In 2013,
Typhoon Haiyan alone devastated 600 000 hectares of farmland and
caused over $700 million in damage to the agriculture sector. In addition,
the country is also highly vulnerable to other natural hazards such as drought,
flooding and volcanic eruptions.
The vulnerability of the
agriculture sector to natural hazards is evident elsewhere across the globe as
well. Nearly a quarter of all damages inflicted by natural hazards such as
drought, floods storms or tsunamis in the developing world are absorbed by the
agriculture sector, FAO studies have shown.
Preparing for such events
and taking steps to reduce risks to farmers and farming systems can greatly
reduce such damages and avoid the need to build agriculture back from scratch
following a disaster.
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