Tunis, September 17, 2025.
Implementation of the Partnership Agreement between OSS and the Libyan Authority for Grain Production: GMES North Africa services supporting the monitoring of agricultural campaigns, September 17, 2025.
Following the signing, in early September 2025, of the Memorandum of Understanding between the OSS and the Libyan Authority for Grain Production, the two institutions have moved on to the implementation phase of this cooperation. In this context, the OSS hosted a delegation of Libyan experts representing the Authority, as well as the Agronomic Research Center of Misrata, with the objective of strengthening their capacities in the use of Earth Observation (EO) tools and technologies for monitoring agricultural campaigns. These two institutions play a key role in supporting the Libyan Ministry of Agriculture in monitoring cereal production and crop development. In a practical and interactive manner, the Libyan delegation experimented with GMES services dedicated to agricultural monitoring, including MISBAR and GUETCROP, designed to support seasonal agriculture surveillance and provide early warning alerts in case of drought; and SAQIYA, the mobile application dedicated to irrigation management and the optimization of agricultural water use.
The Libyan experts were able to apply these tools to concrete cases involving the monitoring of their own agricultural plots. At the end of the training, they praised the effectiveness and relevance of these GMES services, particularly in addressing the specific challenges of the Libyan agricultural and environmental context. In the short term, they plan to adopt these tools for monitoring larger agricultural areas. They also intend to leverage the functionalities of these services to: ensure detailed monitoring of plots, estimate agricultural yields, produce qualitative analyses (field homogeneity, coverage of cultivated areas, etc.), and quantitative assessments (production). A roadmap will be developed to support them in this dynamic of strengthening the partnership, fostering scientific cooperation, sharing knowledge, and improving decision-support services, thereby highlighting the potential of Earth Observation and its applications. Finally, the OSS will involve both institutions in the validation and promotion of the chatbot dedicated to crop disease detection and prediction in North Africa, which is currently under development.