We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Technology and innovation to improve agricultural statistics

Strategically investing in collecting “good data” will help improve the welfare of Asian farmers as agriculture is the main source of income for most of Asia’s poor who are living in rural areas.

According to the report released, enhanced agricultural productivity will go a long way toward reducing rural poverty and boosting incomes of small-scale farmers.

In order to achieve this, major investments in new types of data collection are essential.

Administrative reporting systems or surveys, which are the traditional methods of data collection, are costly. Plus, they are prone to measurement errors.

The power of technology can be employed by more innovative methods in order to save on costs. Moreover, it will deliver the information into the hands of both policymakers and farmers in a timely manner.

The Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2018 Special Supplement report by the Asian Development Bank includes new research demonstrating how technological innovations can improve the quality, timeliness, and granularity of agricultural statistics, while reducing overall collection costs.

The outcomes from two methodological studies have revealed the usefulness and practicality of remote sensing technology in land measurement and yield estimation.

The data gathered will form the basis for numerous policies on resource allocation, subsidies, volume of trade, and food prices.

A third study provides agriculture ministries a more reliable sampling frame, which guarantees that no one is left behind, particularly the small-scale farmers who are more likely to be eliminated by outdated population registers or censuses.

The studies were implemented in collaboration with National Statistics Offices and Ministries of Agriculture in three pilot countries namely Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

The first study centres on the use of Google Earth images for plot area measurement through digital tracing, which was compared to the current gold standard for area measurement, the GPS-based plot area measurement.

Inaccurate estimation of land, a key measure of absolute and relative farmer wealth, would lead to inappropriate welfare measures that weaken policies targeting subsistence farmers.

Although results from the GPS-derived estimates were statistically similar to estimates from Google Earth images, the latter costs 38% less.

With conducting an area survey being an expensive process, any means of cost reduction is welcome so that the savings could be reallocated to other policy actions.

The second study develops a method for estimating crop yields from space, based on the idea that satellite data can help create crop growth models and improve yield estimates.

An innovative data fusion technique was employed in Thai Binh province, Viet Nam, to achieve this. Two freely available sources of satellite data were combined to come up with a fused product with enhanced spatial and temporal resolution.

Better data on crop yields can help policymakers identify hot spots of high and low productivity so resources can be targeted to address the gaps.

A third study explores the utility of land-use maps developed from satellite data in constructing an agricultural sampling frame.

Sampling frames are traditionally based on a census, which may be an outdated, incomplete and non-representative method.

The advantage of using a satellite-derived sampling frame is that it eliminates under-coverage stemming from an outdated population-based frame.

Other emerging technological innovations that have potential for agricultural statistics were also mentioned in the report.

First would be the drones, which are capable of collecting much higher resolution images down to the crop level relatively quickly, providing substantially new information to improve crop yield estimation and risk assessment.

Second is the tablet-based data collection that can convert administrative and survey data quality through improved data validation and management.

Third would be artificial intelligence (AI), which will be a game-changer for agricultural statistics.

With AI, different sources of real-time information can be fed into a machine learning algorithm so that real-time data on critical variables may be obtained.

Technology can address numerous gaps in agricultural statistics. The ultimate objective is for both emerging and existing technologies to complement each other to bolster agricultural data quality.

Doing so will facilitate a policy environment that helps farmers increase productivity and wages, which will ultimately contribute to poverty reduction.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend