In collaboration with ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) Programme, ESA’s IFI partner, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has published a technical note showing how Earth observation is being operationally used by an IFI to monitor and manage a livestock route in Sennar State, Sudan.
Working together, IFAD and ESA’s GDA combined satellite imagery with field surveys to map cropland inside the corridor and guide the route’s re-demarcation.
The impact is clear: the area of cropland within the corridor fell by more than 7,500 hectares, reducing obstructions and with it the likelihood of farmer–herder conflict.
For IFIs, this is a concrete example of EO delivering independent, cost-effective evidence to:
- track land-use change,
- guide practical interventions during implementation, and
- monitor outcomes over time.
The study was carried out in collaboration with ESA’s Global Development Assistance (GDA) Programme thematic activity on Fragility, Conflict and Security.
Read the publication: Using cropland maps to monitor livestock routes in Sudan (with downloadable GIS data) on IFAD’s website.
