A second workshop was held in Agadir, Morocco, on November 29-30th, 2016. This meeting gathered the members of the Consortium as well as two guests by user country, a manager and an officer of the locust control, to review the advances of the project as well as to talk about its future.

Au 1er rang, de gauche à droite : P.E. Gay (Cirad), S. Kamara (CNLA Mauritanie), F. Diakité (CNLCP Mali), A.S. Benahi (CNLA Mauritanie), M. Bagari (CNLAA Maroc) et C. Piou (Cirad). Au 2nd rang, de gauche à droite : S. Lagnaoui (CNLAA Maroc), B. Ahmed Serir (INPV Algérie), B. El Guennouni (CNLAA Maroc), H. Bensaad (INPV Algérie), M. Zoumhane (CNLAA Maroc), M.L. Hamouny (CLCPRO) , M.J. Escorihuela (isardSAT), S. Cissé (CNLCP Mali) et J. Chihrane (CNLAA Maroc).

1st row, left to right: P.E. Gay, S. Kamara, F. Diakité, A.S. Benahi, M. Bagari et C. Piou.
2nd row, left to right: S. Lagnaoui, B. Ahmed Serir, B. El Guennouni, H. Bensaad, M. Zoumhane, M.L. Hamouny, M.J. Escorihuela, S. Cissé et J. Chihrane.

The participants were:

  • isardSAT: Maria José Escorihuela and Laia Romero (video conference)
  • Cirad: Cyril Piou and Pierre-Emmanuel Gay
  • FAO-CLCPRO: Mohamed Lemine Hamouny
  • FAO-DLIS: Keith Cressman (video conference)
  • INPV Algeria: Hamid Bensaad and Billel Ahmed Serir
  • CNLCP Mali: Fakaba Diakité and Sory Cissé
  • CNLAA Morocco: Moha Bagari, Jamal Chihrane, Lahcen Idrissi Raji, Saïd Lagnaoui, Mustapha Zoumhane, Abdellah El Mouden and Badr El Guennouni
  • CNLA Mauritania: Ahmed Salem Benahi and Sidi Kamara

Our exchanges were constructive and fruitful. Here is the agenda:

Tuesday November 29th, 2016
09:00 09:30 Welcome and opening
09:30 10:30 Part I: Soil moisture as a tool for preventive management
Review of soil moisture concepts, typical values, SMELLS project objectives  Maria José Escorihuela
Relationship between soil moisture and the Desert locust life cycle  Cyril Piou
10:30 11:00 Break
11:00 12:30 Part II: validation
Validation of 1km- and 100m-soil moisture products with soil data Maria José Escorihuela
Validation of 1km-soil moisture products with survey data Cyril Piou
Validation of delivery service Maria José Escorihuela
12:30 14:00 Lunch
14:00 17:00 Part III: use of the SMELLS products
Presentation of the Data portal: displaying and downloading .png and .tiff files (tutorial) Maria José Escorihuela
Use of .tiff files in Ramses 4.1 (tutorial) Pierre-Emmanuel Gay
Analysing the current locust situation (example of use) Cyril Piou
Wednesday November 30th, 2016
 09:15 09:30 Report of the previous day debates Maria José Escorihuela
09:30 10:15 Part IV: users analyse and feedback
Presentation by FAO-DLIS Keith Cressman
Presentation by Algeria’s INPV Hamid Bensaad
Presentation by Mali’s CNLCP Fakaba Diakité
10:15 10:45 Break
11:45 12:15 Presentation by Morocco’s CNLAA Jamal Chihrane
Presentation by Mauritania’s CNLA Ahmed Salem Benahi
12:15 12:30 CLCPRO’s contribution
EMPRESS program, stage II
Potential for SMELLS’ continuation		 Mohamed Lemine Hamouny
12:30 14:00 Lunch
 14:00 15:30  Discussion about SMELLS’ future
    1km-operational capability
Researches on the relationship soil moisture/Desert locust
Improvement at 100 m
Other items		 Laia Romero
15:30 16:30 Partie VI : Summary and closing
Summary and users recommendations
Outcome		 Maria José Escorihuela

The presentations of this workshop are available in the “Partners corner” section.