Pioneering crop monitoring for food security wins Newton Prize

A new way to monitor crop production for global food security developed by scientists at UCL and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has won the Newton Prize 2019 Chair's Award. The UK-China team behind the pioneering research project were announced winners of the £459,000 prize at a special event in London on Wednesday 12 February. Across the world, pressures such as population growth, soil erosion, drought, flooding, pesticide overuse, and groundwater depletion are threatening the sustainability of future food production. All of which will be exacerbated by climate change. Researchers from UCL and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences are addressing these challenges through advanced data assimilation techniques. This has already been used to vastly improve the accuracy and resolution of crop monitoring and crop yield estimates over the North China Plain. The technique developed by scientists enables better planning and informed decision-making at all levels, to positively impact the livelihoods of low-income rural communities, and is now being tested in other countries, including Ghana and the UK.