DR FLORIAN SCHLENZ
Chief Operations Officer at Geocledian GmbH
“Remote sensing enables farmers to make better-informed decisions”
To counter the upheavals in cotton production in Africa, CmiA is breaking new ground with forward-looking solutions. Together with Geocledian GmbH, CmiA is testing the remote sensing method in Tanzania. In this interview, Dr Florian Schlenz, the COO of Geocledian GmbH, explains what this technology is all about, the opportunities it opens up for small-scale farmers, and the challenges associated with its implementation.
Which new opportunities does remote sensing open up for smallscale cotton cultivation?
Agricultural remote sensing has been utilised since the 1970s, so it’s not new. Nonetheless, significant improvements have occurred in recent years regarding the availability, quality, and affordability of data and sensors, both for satellites and drones.
This enables the development of novel agricultural remote sensing applications that benefit not only industrial agriculture but also small-scale cotton cultivation. This wealth of information can be utilised to monitor cotton production, plan harvests, or simply enable farmers to make better-informed decisions. On a more regional level, this information can be used to assess and support the implementation of cotton standards. This includes conducting risk assessments related to activities such as deforestation or agricultural practices near protected areas.
What are the current challenges and limitations of this approach?
Remote sensing applications can deliver the best results and generate the largest benefit when combined with highquality field data based on the parameters that are expected to be delivered. For example, the high-accuracy production monitoring of every single cotton field is only possible if high-accuracy field boundaries are available. I would say that the limitations we currently have in predicting something like cotton development on individual fields are due to the challenges in gathering this high-quality information on the ground.
What were the most important findings of the remote sensing project you conducted with Cotton made in Africa?
We had the chance to visit Alliance Ginneries in Tanzania, where we learnt a lot about smallholder cotton cultivation, the process of cotton production in general, and how extension agents work together with farmers. We were happy to contribute our knowledge on field data mapping and spatial data processing by offering training in geographic information systems (GIS). It was great to see how these skills were applied immediately by Alliance staff to map a lot of their cotton fields in order to support us develop a remote sensing model. I think understanding all of these processes and seeing how challenges can be overcome together, through collaboration, was our most important lesson so far. The project has been very rewarding.
Which initial successes has the project achieved?
We are very happy that we were able to demonstrate that the field-based production monitoring of small-scale cotton cultivation is possible. This can help ginneries make better-informed decisions as it increases the transparency of cotton production. We also succeeded in mapping all cotton fields in one region in Tanzania with the help of Alliance Ginneries based on example field data from them. On top of that, we were able to demonstrate how a risk assessment regarding deforestation or encroachment on protected areas can be done. I think we can demonstrate how this technology can help CmiA implement its sustainable cotton standard by simultaneously increasing transparency and consumer trust in the seal.
DR FLORIAN SCHLENZ
Chief Operations Officer at Geocledian GmbH
“Remote sensing enables farmers to make better-informed decisions”