Online course on Food Security Studies using EO

Food Security Studies using EO

• Date:March 23 – April 17, 2026

• Language:English

• DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS:March 9, 2026

Introduction to the course

Advances in Earth Observation (EO) and cloud-based data processing now make it possible to monitor agricultural systems in near-real time and to assess food security conditions across scales, from local production systems to national and regional contexts. By combining satellite-derived indicators with analytical frameworks, EO has become a key tool for understanding agricultural stress, crop performance, and access to food.

This course will provide/present participants with:

• An overview of key EO-based concepts, indicators, and analytical approaches used in food security analysis, including agricultural drought monitoring and assessment of food access.
• Practical knowledge on the use of vegetation indices, anomaly detection, and operational tools such as the Agricultural Stress Index to identify and monitor crop stress and production risks.
• Hands-on experience with parcel-based crop monitoring, crop type mapping, and the use of biophysical proxies such as fPAR to assess crop performance and estimate yield.

Prerequisites

The participants are expected to have a basic knowledge on Earth Observation, Python programming and the use of cloud environments for EO image processing. All these can be acquired by reviewing the first two online courses of the EO AFRICA series (OC 1: Cloud Computing and algorithms for EO analyses; OC 2: Principles of and advances in Earth Observation). Access to both courses will be given to those selected to attend this online course. Note that this course complements EO AFRICA Phase 1 course OC 5 (Hyper-Temporal Mapping of Agro-Ecosystems & Assessing Land Suitability). Although having participated in that course is certainly an advantage, candidates are not expected to have attended this course.

Instructors

• 

  Prof. Andy Nelson
  Professor – Department of Natural Resources, Faculty ITC of the University of Twente
  https://people.utwente.nl/a.nelson
  a.nelson@utwente.nl

• 

  Dr. Jeroen Degerickx
  R&D Professional – Agricultural Applications, VITO Remote Sensing
  https://remotesensing.vito.be/team/jeroen-degerickx
  jeroen.degerickx@vito.be

• 

  Dr. Michael T. Marshall
  Assistant Professor – Department of Natural Resources, Faculty ITC of the University of Twente
  https://people.utwente.nl/m.t.marshall
  m.t.marshall@utwente.nl

Schedule

This online course will last for a total of 40 hours covering the period 23 March until 17 April, 2026 (4 weeks with a daily study-load of approximately 2 hours – 10 hours a week). All required course materials will be provided upfront through the Moodle Cloud learning platform. Participants are expected to digest the training materials independently by themselves. Regular live sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays or Wednesdays and Fridays each week will be organized during which teachers will make presentations and students can ask questions/make clarifications. These are scheduled at 16:00 CET/CEST. In addition, a forum will be established on Moodle Cloud for students to interact amongst themselves and with the teaching staff. A detailed day-to-day time schedule of course activities is provided below which can be used as a guideline for students. Though not mandatory, students are advised to stick to this timeline as close as possible as the timing of the live sessions is closely linked to this schedule.

Week #1 (23 March – 27 March 2026):

Week #2 (30 March – 3 April 2026):

Week #3 (6 April – 10 April 2026):

Week #4 (13 – 17 April 2026):

Course material accessibility

Course materials & Discussion forum will be hosted on MOODLE platform. Each section of the dedicated Moodle platform corresponds to “one training day”.

Exercises and Case studies will need to be completed on your desktop or the Innovation Lab depending on internet connectivity.

Live Q&A sessions will be hosted on MSTeams.

Course evaluation and certificate

During the final week of the course, participants will take an exam through Moodle in which all knowledge and skills taught in the course will be integrated. Students are expected to work on the exam on their own and submit answers to questions posed in the exam. Students will be given their score and feedback immediately after the exam is submitted. Course evaluation will be solely based on the successful completion of the exam. If successful, a certificate of completion of the course will be sent to you by the EO AFRICA Research and Development Facility.

Throughout the course, a series of short quizzes/formative assessments will also be available to test your knowledge. These short quizzes are purely meant to evaluate your understanding of the material, but will not be considered during formal course evaluation.