The recent EO for agriculture under pressure event, which took place at ESA-ESRIN last week, brought together a notable number of participants, with 300 attendees in person from 43 different countries and more than 500 joining online connecting a diverse audience from various locations.
The workshop explored the role of Earth Observation in addressing the steadily growing pressures on agriculture and the entire food system to increase global production while ensuring healthy, nutrient-rich products and sustainability, in a context where increased resilience and adaptation to climate change is needed as well as more transparent markets and less speculation, to avoid price fluctuations that prevent a regular access to food for large populations.
Technical sessions
A comprehensive overview and discussion of the current state of the art was enabled by ten technical sessions, ranging from missions and data in the “agri-space” up to community support tools. These sessions featured 60 presentations selected from 175 abstracts by a scientific committee of 43 experts. The presentations facilitated discussions on recent research and technological developments.
Two poster sessions complemented the technical sessions, presenting over 100 posters. These sessions offered young scientists an opportunity to network and share their research with more experienced professionals.
Panel debates
The workshop also included six panel discussions addressing specific issues such as the transition from R&D to operations and integrating in-situ and EO data. These panels included scientists, policy makers, policy owners, and user organizations, providing a platform for diverse perspectives.
A dedicated session highlighted twenty European Commission (EC) and European Space Agency (ESA) projects. This session also initiated the ESA Agriculture Science Cluster‘s first meeting, held the day after the workshop.
Community and recommendations
Throughout the workshop, participants were proposing recommendations to the ESA and EC regarding future R&D activities. A collection of daily highlights and recommendations is accessible online. These recommendations will be detailed in a workshop report to be published next month.
The workshop program included a number of contributions from the European Commission, represented by six Directorate-Generals (JRC, RTD, AGRI, DEFIS, ENV, ESTAT) and its Research Executive Agency. The other co-organisers, FAO, WFP, and GEOGLAM also contributed actively, adding their perspectives to the discussions.
Overall, the workshop facilitated community engagement and scientific collaboration, providing a platform for discussions that will influence future research and innovation efforts.
Could you not attend? Did you miss the live transmission? No worries, a recording of the live streaming is still accessible on our EO Open Science YouTube channel.