Welcome to the module ‘Agriculture & Livestock‘ of Towards Zero Hunger.
Here, you have the chance to learn about the application of Earth observation technology for food supply practices agriculture, and livestock.
This module is part of a series of online learning materials.
Towards Zero Hunger will give you insights into the potential of remote sensing technologies to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger.
What will you learn?
Agricultural food production systems are variable across time and space. Capturing them with Earth observation is not straightforward. But if it is done adequately, this can support many steps in the food system. For example, geoinformation can help select appropriate areas to grow a crop, determine the right timing for irrigation and fertilizer application or predict production shortages.
To do so, central questions are which parameters to look at, like vegetation greenness, biomass or soil moisture, how to calculate the respective remote sensing-based indicators, how to find a good sensor for the task, and how to gather and use reference data for calibration of methods and validation of derived products.
In this module, you will get an overview of the food supply practice agriculture, which includes crop cultivation and livestock management. You will learn which information can be derived from remote sensing and how Earth observation can support these practices.
Learning Objectives
- Understanding basic concepts of Earth observation-based applications in agriculture
- Being able to calculate key vegetation indices used in agriculture
- Describing application examples and requirements to sensors and data
Workload
Choose your own learning pace.
Depending on your existing knowledge, it will take 3-4 hours to complete.
For which SDG 2 targets is this module relevant?
Earth observation can contribute to reach the goal Zero Hunger, particularly through targets 2.3, 2.4 and 2.C and indicator 2.4.1.
This module is relevant to all of these targets and indicator.
For which food production practices is this module relevant?
Towards Zero Hunger Modules
If you want to learn more about different food production systems, the role of EO, approaches, or applications for mapping and monitoring, you can choose from the courses below.
Released Modules
Hands-on Tutorials
Upcoming modules
Credits
This module was created with the help of learning materials that were kindly provided by:
- EO College: Land in Focus – Basics of Remote Sensing, Land in Focus – Agriculture & Food
- NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET): McNairn, H.; Dingle-Robertson, L.; Fitrzyk, M.; Ramoino, F.; Karadimou, G.; Roth, T.; Bontemps, S.; Defourny, P. (2021). Agricultural Crop Classification with Synthetic Aperture Radar and Optical Remote Sensing. NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET)
- The European Space Agency (ESA): 6th ESA Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing 2015 and from the 9th Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing with the focus on Agriculture