Improve agriculture monitoring systems through satellite imagery for the Islamic Republic of Iran

Due to more and more frequent extreme climate events (floods, drought, and frosts) and due to the changes in precipitation (amounts, seasonality, intensity) and warming temperatures that are impacting rainfed agriculture and changing growing seasons, the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture (MOJA) of the Islamic Republic of Iran asked the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to provide assistance in setting up an improved agriculture monitoring system, based on integral use of advanced geospatial technologies to support development of the techniques, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development under the current changing conditions of climate. The project has focused on the identification of state-of-the-art methods and strategy for acreage and yield estimation, based on an assessment of the existing monitoring methodology, optimized through the use of remote sensing. In addition, the project benefitted from the availability of multi-temporal satellite images for testing and monitoring of a range of crops in 3 selected pilot areas: the provinces of Zanjan and Mazandaran and the region of the south of Kerman. The publication reports data collected, processes followed and results obtained at this stage of the still not completely concluded study.