AGRIMOR: Unlocking Rice Self-Sufficiency in The Gambia through Geospatial Analytics

Commonly, rice is planted in bunded fields that are continuously flooded for 7-10 days after transplanting. This flooding is crucial for weed management and ensuring sufficient water supply. Water creates unfavourable conditions for weeds, by cutting off sunlight and aeration to the ground. So, rice farmers adopted the practice of submerging rice in water to check weeds. 

Gambian rice fields present in two main categories; some are growing encouragingly, while some are abandoned due to poor irrigation system. The inabilities to channel water and distribute them well were found to be the main problem.

Aerodyne’s work has been instrumental in assisting IsDB and the Gambian technical team in performing decision-makings for the development of the Gambian rice field chains. Critical fields in dire need of interventions were given to us for investigation and problem mitigation design. 

Aerodyne was tasked to capture most of these unviable fields. Afterwards, we did our geo-computational study and guided the civil engineers on various terrain topology. Geomorphometry and terrain analyses have highlighted the topographic characteristics of these abandoned fields, helping engineers and agronomists understand the root causes of such failure. Geographic information systems (GIS) and their corresponding tools have the capabilities to deliver insights into geomorphology, hydrology, soil science, and more. We provide our clients with:

1. Slope analysis to understand the flatness of the rice fields.

2. Elevation analysis to comprehend the field’s altitude and elevation differences, influencing water pressure.

3. Streamline order to describe the outflow, inflow, and movement of water within the fields.

Aerodyne geo-spatial analytics team have generated all terrain topology features that may be used by civil engineers to design the irrigation system so that the right amount of flooding can be achieved at the appropriate times. Our analyses are focused on guiding these engineers to create the optimum water flow for the paddy fields. For an instance, the streamline maps we produced help them simulate and discern how water flows within the fields before deciding on any interventions.

Additionally, our Agrimor.com platform can load various rasters and vectors conveniently and visualize them effectively, aiming to ease comprehension of the terrain structure. Multiple geo-intelligence layers can be overlaid for the purpose of illustration, annotation and simulation. Users can annotate on the platform and the drawn vectors can be downloaded in the form of KML/SHP/GEOJSON. These files can be opened in Google Earth or other softwares relevant to the operation of civil engineering, hydrology analysis, and many other.