KfW Development Bank is organising an online conference on Remote Management, Monitoring and Verification (RMMV) approaches and tools for humanitarian and development projects implementation under challenging circumstances on the 8 and 9 February 2023. Paolo Manunta, senior infrastructure specialist in Earth Observation at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), will discuss the use of Earth Observation (EO) for coffee plantation mapping in Timor Leste on Wednesday 8 February 2023 as part of the morning session on “lessons learned & innovations in remote progress monitoring”. This project was implemented through the EO Clinic, which is part of the GDA precursor initiative “Earth observation for Sustainable Development” (EO4SD).
In Timor-Leste, coffee is the largest non-oil export and is grown by 37.5% of all Timorese households, with half of these households relying on the crop for cash income. Despite being already significant, the coffee sector in Timor-Leste is currently operating far below its long-term potential: production is low and volatile, quality is inconsistent, and sector management is weak. As a result, many coffee-producing households live in extreme poverty.
ADB has been working with the European Space Agency (ESA) to monitor coffee plantations using EO data. Indeed, EO can help improving the quality and productivity of coffee plantations and thus increasing farmer’s incomes. In order to increase coffee production volume and quality without adversely affect the environment, a satellite-based service has been used in order to get an up-to-date situation on coffee crops, which has been used to inform appropriate farming strategies. This project has notably supporting the implementation of Timor-Leste’s Coffee Sector Development Plan (2019-2030).
