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Turkmenistan and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have initiated a collaborative effort to introduce advanced technologies and expertise in land use monitoring and remote sensing. This approach facilitates timely and effective decision-making at both the national and farm levels.

The optimization and redesign of processes related to agricultural crop monitoring, forecasting, and statistical accounting, as well as field testing of newly developed procedures, will also be part of the recently launched project, implemented under the FAO Technical Cooperation Program (TCP), which will run until the end of 2026.

On January 7, 2025, the project implementation document was officially signed by Viorel Gutu, FAO Deputy Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia, and Charyyar Chetiyev, Minister of Agriculture of Turkmenistan.

“Remote sensing offers innovative ways to collect and analyze data that can be useful for various sectors, such as agriculture, water resource management, disaster risk reduction, and others. In the agricultural sector, it can be an effective source of near real-time information on sown areas, plant growth dynamics and projected yields, water shortages and irrigation planning, or even on pests and plant mortality”, emphasized Maxim Gorgan, the FAO project's lead technical specialist.

Initially, a comprehensive analysis of existing regulations and the institutional framework related to agricultural crop monitoring and remote sensing will be conducted, and recommendations for changes and improvements will be provided. The new agricultural crop monitoring methodology will combine advanced technologies and traditional statistical approaches, sampling, and data collection.

FAO will also develop and conduct a specialized training program for relevant ministry and Land Resources Service personnel on the new methodology and operating principles of the remote sensing-based agricultural crop monitoring system. In addition, the potential for incorporating remote sensing into higher education curricula will be explored.

The project envisages the creation of demonstration sites with various agricultural crops and agro-climatic conditions to test measures for monitoring the condition of agricultural crops using remote sensing technology. It is expected that the pilot site will provide relevant data to refine the methodology and develop a concept for scaling up the approach.

"The new technology will help farmers better understand the specific needs of different areas in the field, which will allow them to use water, fertilizers, and other resources more efficiently, achieving higher yields", added Maxim Gorgan.

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Photo: fao.org