Background
Remote-sensing and spatial information systems are revolutionizing agriculture but there are significant barriers to adoption in poor countries and this is adversely affecting smallholder farmers. The Spurring a Transformation for Agriculture through Remote Sensing (STARS) project aims to overcome these barriers. The STARS project is a collaborative effort of various leading research institutions and is being implemented in Asia, West Africa and East Africa (Tanzania and Uganda). The main research partners in Tanzania are Sokoine University of Agriculture and University of Maryland (USA). The National Food Security Office in Tanzania is a strategic partner.
Project Objectives:
The objective of this project is to advance, adapt and develop new remote sensing techniques and applications in close collaboration with the end-user community in Tanzania. The project has two main goals:
- Develop and deploy a user-friendly, satellite-based crop condition monitoring portal with the primary goal of enabling the Department of Food Security to use satellite image technology to support crop condition assessments;
- Conduct field-based trials to develop and evaluate new remote sensing products and methodologies that could improve the performance of the remote sensing portal and explore new opportunities for utilizing remote sensing imagery for agricultural monitoring.
