Bangladesh is preparing to introduce remote sensing and drones to detect crop damage caused by extreme weather events or diseases, said the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Around 20 officers of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) are initially receiving training to learn how to use the state-of-the-art technologies.
Malay Choudhury, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, and Edimon Ginting, ADB Country Director for Bangladesh inaugurated a workshop titled “The Use of Drone and Satellite Image for Crop Monitoring and Crop Damage Assessment” in Dhaka on Tuesday to initiate a seven-day training programme.
DAE and ADB jointly designed the training programme that will continue till April 25 April, according to ADB.
Renowned geospatial experts from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) will conduct the training.
The trainees will receive four days of classroom training on geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing analysis for crop damage detection and participate in a three-day field trip to Sylhet to learn how to collect ground data using mobile devices.
Following the training program, ADB and DAE plan to produce joint reports on crop damage assessment in the Sylhet region, conduct a project evaluation study of an ADB-supported integrated water management project in Gopalganj areas, and implement a nationwide climate disaster assessment in a small local government unit.
