NASA Harvest Updates - August 2019
It's summer, but we're still hard at work here at NASA Harvest! Read below about our work providing Earth observation-based information to support agricultural markets, measuring the value of satellite data for agriculture, improving quality of sub-national agricultural statistics, and more!
Buenos Aires Grain Exchange -
Reducing Market Risk Through Earth Observation Data
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange (Bolsa de Cereales) helps provide crop production and crop condition estimates to improve market transparency, with the goal of reducing price volatility for grains. NASA Harvest is working with Bolsa de Cereales to provide timely, cutting edge Earth observation data tools to reduce risk for agricultural markets in Argentina.
Harvest partner Joe Glauber -former Chief Economist of the USDA - is embarking on a series of educational blog posts for IFPRI’s Food Security Portal, the first of which corresponds to his recent presentations at the AMIS and Harvest Conferences with a focus on the uncertainty in agricultural markets.
Conflict creates unique signals that can affect food security. A new article in the journal Land by NASA Harvest partners at Applied GeoSolutions highlights their approach of utilizing moderate-resolution satellite remote sensing to complement more traditional food insecurity hot spot assessment across Rakhine, Myanmar. 

Sub-national agricultural statistics for countries that are not major grain exporters have always been difficult to find. NASA Harvest is assisting FEWS NET, in a project led by Dr. Gary Eilerts, to gather in one place a unique archive of publicly-available sub-national agricultural statistics.
The NASA Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI) held its annual regional science meeting on Environment and Emissions in South/Southeast Asia hosted by the University of Teknologi Malaysia in Johor Bahru, Malaysia from July 22- 25th, partnering with NASA Harvest and other partner programs.

In Illinois, local farmers with the  Illinois Corn Growers Association  are working with University of Illinois researchers led by NASA Harvest partner Dr. Kaiyu Guan on a new Farmer Data Cooperative. The project aims at addressing food security, from improving crop outputs to working their land more efficiently.

Data and Tools
The Climate Hazards Center has three critical tools for agroclimatic monitoring: Early Estimates, the Early Warning Explorer, and CHIRPS-GEFS forecasts.

Upcoming Events
2019 Joint Satellite Conference - September 28 - October 4
NASA Harvest is co-organizing the sixth session of this conference, focused on " Quantifying Impact of Weather Extremes in a Changing Climate ". This session emphasizes extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts and heavy precipitation, and their influence on agriculture and ecosystems, as well as human health and well-being.
Pecora 21 Session - October 10, 2019
A special session of Pecora 21/ISRSE 38, " NASA Harvest and Other Recent Advances in Remote Sensing of Agricultural Applications and Food Security " will emphasize how developments in sensor technology and high-performance computing have led to a renaissance in agricultural remote sensing .
AGU 100 Fall Meeting - December 9-13, 2019
The NASA Harvest Session Four Decades and Counting: NASA Earth Observations and Agricultural Monitoring at AGU invites abstracts that demonstrate the utilization of or showcase the impact of NASA data, services, and tools for agricultural monitoring and assessment. Perspectives from researchers through end users are welcome toward weaving a cohesive narrative of the impact of NASA Earth on global agriculture and food security while identifying challenges and opportunities for enhancing the use of EO for agricultural monitoring.
The Earth Observations and Environmental Modeling for Agriculture and Food Security session will advance the use of satellite and airborne Earth observations, ground observational networks and modeling tools to support decision in agriculture and food security.