The Ag. Director
of the Kenyan Spacy Agency (KSA), Brig Hillary Kipkosgey has held discussions
with the Deputy Director of Microsoft AI for Good Lab and author of "AI for
Social Good" book) Dr. Rahul Dodhia and the Principal Research Scientist
and Manager, Microsoft AI for Good Lab in Nairobi, Kenya, Dr. Girmaw Abebe
Tadesse.
The
discussions centred on the progress of the ongoing collaborative project
between Kenya Space Agency and Microsoft AI for Good which commenced in
November 2023.
The goal of the project, which is being piloted in
Murang’a county, is to develop Earth Observation tools and products utilizing
Space-based technologies to address the challenges faced by small-scale farmers
in the county, with the possibility of scaling the project to the whole country.
The Microsoft AI for Good and Clark Centre for
Geospatial Analytics are collaborating with the Kenya Space Agency to generate
the Land Use Land Cover map for Murang’a county using high resolution drone and
satellite data using Artificial Intelligence models.
Subsequently,
KSA in collaboration with other stakeholders will utilize the LULC map to
generate the crop mask, crop yield estimates and generate actionable information
for farmers, agricultural extension officers and policymakers in the county.
The discussion also explored other potential areas
of collaboration between the two organizations. The meeting was also attended
by Charles Mwangi and Mark Ndonga from KSA.
By: Nana Appiah Acquaye
