Abstract
Global Food Security: USDA FAS and NGA Project Success
Track: Agriculture
Author
The successful results of the Interagency collaboration between the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS in predicting the Iraq drought early enough for Iraqi government officials to avert a famine by arranging for food shipments to the impacted areas led to an expanded four country follow on project in the 2008-2009 growing year and the 2009-2010 crop marketing year.
The goal of the goal of this next project was to develop new remote sensing processes for assessing crop health and predicting harvest yields in growing regions where minimal ground condition information is available utilizing the USDA FAS three tier data methodology and a convergence of evidence.
Human observations can never be replaced entirely, although high-resolution satellite imagery often used by NGA for intelligence purposes was integrated successfully into existing FAS processing methodologies. Project findings/successes will be highlighted.
Shawana Johnson
Global Marketing Insights, Inc.
6801Brecksville Rd. Ste. 206
Independence, Ohio 44131
United States
Phone: 216-525-0600
Fax: 216-525-0601
E-mail: shawana@globalinsights.com
Robert Tetrault
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave. SW
Washington D.C., District of Columbia 20250
United States
Phone: 202-720-1071
E-mail: robert.tetrault@fas.usda.gov