The workshop is being attended by senior agriculture officials, including project coordinators, monitoring and evaluation officers and technicians.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the International Fund for Agricultural (IFAD), in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and SARMP, organsied the workshop courtesy of the Participatory Integrated Watershed Management Project (PIWAMP).
The main objectives of the workshop are to share the results of the pilot project with key stakeholders, discuss the benefits of using EO services and provide hands-on training to selected government and project staff on the application of EO technologies in The Gambia.
According to officials, the forum will focus specifically on creating clarity and detailed understanding by all actors on how to implement the project.
The workshop will further cover certain topics, such as technical principles, capability and cost of space-borne EO applications for land and resources survey, notably for land cover inventories, land cover change assessment and monitoring, land degradation assessments, topography and environmental protection.
It would also discuss forestry, disaster management and background information on applications with special emphasis on new capacities.
Participants would also be exposed to the overview of the potential advantages of using SAR data for specific applications such as the generation of digital elevation models, crop mapping and monitoring, land cover changes, forest fires impact assessment and burnt areas mapping, landside and subsidence monitoring.
In her official opening remarks, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Ada Gaye, hailed IFAD for once again demonstrating its commitment to taking the lead in support of the development of the agricultural sector in The Gambia by initiating yet milestone collaboration between The Gambia and ESA.
According to her, the workshop aimed at monitoring key food crops and providing essential information for better planning and decision-making through earth observations and remote sensing.