GEOG-Led NASA Harvest Consortium Receives IRCAI Global Top 100 Recognition

International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence Top 100

IRCAI under the auspices of UNESCO has released a list of 100 projects solving problems related to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with the application of Artificial Intelligence, from all five geographical regions: Africa, Europe and Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East.

The main aim is to scope and showcase solutions from around the world and contribute to the SDGs by creating the world’s largest sustainable solutions platform, and helping these solutions grow even more effective and impactful. This means that the top 100 List highlights solutions that are applicable and can credibly solve a real-life problem in development with a considered emphasis on ethics. The successful NASA Harvest nomination was submitted by GEOG's Dr. Catherine Nakalembe in her role as the NASA Harvest Africa Initiative Lead.

Visit https://ircai.org/ to learn more about the IRCAI Global Top 100.

General description of the NASA Harvest AI solution

Harvest is developing solutions that provide information on agricultural production and land use that support the attainment of several SDGs as well as monitoring their achievement via the Global Indicator Framework. Harvest contributes to Goal 2: Zero Hunger, water (Goal 6), responsible consumption and production (Goal 12), climate action (Goal 13), life on land (Goal 15), and global partnerships for sustainable development (Goal 17). Towards SDG-2 targets 1 and 2, Harvest is using ML and EO data to accelerate the availability, timeliness, and quality of information on crops. This feeds into processes for early warning of crop failures and production shortfalls as well as empowering decisions related to food security, including global food aid, (re)insurance activation, and farmer response. Towards SDG-12 target 12.A, Harvest supports developing countries to integrate and leverage EO- and ML-based solutions with existing monitoring frameworks through extensive capacity-building programs. Since November 2017, NASA Harvest has initiated or been involved in ~30 projects globally to improve tools and grow regional and local capacity to address food insecurity. Harvest maintains a satellite-based Global Agriculture Monitoring system (GLAM) developed by the University of Maryland with NASA and USDA. GLAM was customized for East Africa, enabling the implementation of the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program. In Uganda, this program has supported >300,000 individuals in Karamoja, providing alternative livelihoods to smallholder farmers affected by drought. This system also enables the delivery of newer maps and solutions using ML including crop maps and yield forecasts. Harvest’s 2019 crop map of Togo was used to implement the YOLIM program which has served more than 50,000 people. This work has garnered global recognition. Harvest Africa Lead, Dr. Catherine Nakalembe, was also selected as a 2020 Africa Food Prize laureate. Harvest team member Dr. Hannah Kerner was included on the Forbes 2021 “30 Under 30” list in science and Christopher Justice, Harvest’s chief scientist, received a NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Published on Wed, 01/12/2022 - 14:39