The Sahel is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions in terms of climate change, and where the livelihoods of many depend on a few crops such as millet and sorghum, according to UN World Food Programme analyst Matthieu Tockert.
To help counteract these effects, West Africa will soon be using space-based observations to boost crop production and better manage natural disasters.
A 2014 study by Nasa found that governments in the region either did not have good data or were not using it. Now Nasa, from a hub recently launched in Niger’s capital Niamey, will stream climate data gathered by its satellites to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Senegal with the aim of improving food security.
