Towards sustainable and resilient farming systems in the Sahel. A combined remote sensing crop modelling approach

This research project aims to contribute to the efforts of eradicating hunger in a changing climate through sustainable agricultural intensification in the Sahel.

It intends to inventory the evolution of farming systems in the Sahel over the past 20-years using a variety of satellite based products and state of the art clustering and classification algorithms to produce the first of their kind yearly maps of cropping practices for the region.

Moreover, through the combination of earth observation and ecosystem modelling, this project will improve crop models’ representations of agricultural landscapes and farm management, thus contributing to more representative estimations of crop yields and carbon and nitrogen fluxes and pools.

This would also enable the assessment of tradeoffs between yield gains and environmental degradation considering nitrogen leaching, soil organic carbon and greenhouse gasses emissions for each studied cropping practice in response to current climatic variability.

Finally, after generating a variety of plausible cropland intensification pathways, their capacity to withstand climate change effects in a sustainable manner will be evaluated.

Identified local best practices could significantly contribute to future agrarian reform planning towards sustainable farming systems, resilient to climate change and capable of feeding the growing population of the countries across the Sahel.