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The Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) held an international conference on global agriculture monitoring-digital earth technologies for agriculture from 29 to 30 September. Prof. Jose Achache, Executive Director of Group on Earth Observations and Mr. Zhao Datong, Deputy Director-General, China Meteorological Administration, were the honorary guests of the conference. Also officiating at the conference were Prof. Fung Tung, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, Prof. Lin Hui, Director of ISEIS and Prof. Chen Jinsong of ISEIS.

Agriculture production is the pillar of many economies. In Asian countries, the densities of agricultural population are among the highest in the world. The demand for grain has been rising as the population increases and the living condition improves. To enhance the effectiveness of agricultural policies, it is crucial to monitor agricultural production in order to provide timely and precise information on crop production, crop acreage and crop condition for decision makers of national agricultural policies. Regarding the aspect of global environment, the knowledge of crop growing areas is also important to land cover, land use and climate change. The fast changing international environment in terms of food supply and climate change has also strengthened the need for developing a global agricultural monitoring system to improve agricultural risk management, agricultural monitoring and food security. Remote sensing is able to provide spatial and temporal distributed information on crop growth. With the rapid development of earth resource satellites which provide various remotely sensed images, remote sensing is increasingly playing a critical role in developing a global agricultural monitoring system. The application of new emerging satellite data will also help address some technical issues which are yet to be solved presently.

The 2-day workshop provided a platform for global scientists, policy makers and satellite data providers to present the advances of agricultural monitoring technology, particularly in tropical areas, and helped strengthen the network for the agricultural community.

Experts and scholars from Mainland China, the United States, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Korea, Australia, Belgium and Canada were invited to join the workshop. Key topics discussed included: ‘Mapping Crop Land Using Optical and Microwave Remote Sensing Data’, ‘Monitoring Crop Growth Condition’, ‘Retrieval of Crop Biophysical Properties’ and ‘Agriculture Resources Survey and Planning’. Keynote speeches were given by four leading scientists, namely Prof. Guo Huadong, Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Prof. Chlris Justice, University of Maryland; Prof. Wu Bingfang, Institute of Remote Sensing Application, CAS and Mr. Cornelis Anthonius van Diepen, Wageningen University – Alterra Netherlands.

The event was sponsored by Group on Earth Observations, International Society of Digital Earth and Jiangxi Normal University.