EGYPT – Esri, the global company involved in location intelligence, has announced that Egyptian partner Quality Standards for Information Technology (QSIT) has successfully implemented the Crop Mapping and Field Boundary Detection solution for the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) in Egypt.

QSIT implemented an artificial intelligence (AI) and remote-sensing spatial analysis solution to establish a dynamic, seasonal digital inventory of crop patterns.

It integrates satellite imagery, field observations, data feeds, and geospatial AI (GeoAI) capabilities to support Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AEnRI) in maximizing crop yields from limited resources.

The company has built AI models to both detect agricultural field boundaries and classify patterns at the field level.

Agricultural fields in Egypt are commonly distributed with relatively small parcels that usually reduce the reliability of statistics in surveying cropland.

The new solution provides a baseline for developing more advanced tools to support precision agriculture management.

“The project is just the first step, opening doors towards a series of other AI implementations aiming to support the farming industry in Egypt.“

Fadl Abdelhamid Hashem – Executive director of Climate Change Information Center, Agriculture Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Egypt.

The detection of already planted crops enables more accurate yield estimation as well as better monitoring of crop production and distribution.

It also enables better water consumption estimation and water-loss control, and it optimizes water use. In addition, the overall understanding of the cultivated areas would further support more efficient crop production planning.

“AI is being utilized for the first time in the agriculture sector in Egypt and implemented to manage farms in a strategic way.

“The project is just the first step, opening doors towards a series of other AI implementations aiming to support the farming industry in Egypt,“said Fadl Abdelhamid Hashem, executive director of Climate Change Information Center, Agriculture Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Egypt.

The agricultural solution was implemented for a pilot area and used on specific types of crops—one planted in winter (wheat) and one in summer (rice).

“The project extends to include the implementation of multiple practices in the field of precision agriculture, with a view to achieving optimized water consumption [and] enhanced crop yield and distribution.

“The bigger picture is to take this implementation from Egypt as a pilot country to the rest of Africa, supporting sustainable development goals in the continent,” said Sherif Awad, QSIT CEO.

According to Waleed Effat, technical consultant at Esri Middle East and Africa, “The use of Esri’s GeoAI opens many new opportunities in the agricultural field—crop detection, field boundary delineation, plant health and disease identification, and much more, to empower precision agriculture and better optimize our limited resources for a better future for people.”

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