Gordon Reichert

Crop Condition and Assessment
Regional and National Capability
Gordon Reichert
Remote Sensing and Geospatial Applications
Statistics Canada
CGEO Workshop on Soil Moisture Monitoring
Analysis and Prediction in Agricultural Landscapes
Saskatoon
June 19 - 20, 2007

Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP)
• Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
• The CCAP is maintained by Statistics Canada.
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the
National Land and Water Information Service
(NLWIS) and National Agroclimate Information
Service (NAIS) has partnered with Statistics
Canada to provide this product free of charge to
the public-at-large.
• 2007-08: Last year of funding

Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP)
Regional Capability: 1987 – 2007
• 7 day composite from MRSC
•GeoComp!
• area as shown
• Yield model
http://www26.statcan.ca/ccap/map.jsflang=en
http://www26.statcan.ca/ccap/map.jsflang=fr

National Capability : Milestone - 2007
For the first time, using software developed by
CCRS, Statistics Canada is now able to produce
in-house national scale products at all stages of
production, from data reception to value-added
distribution !
• EODM_NRT software (CCRS)
• Agricultural mask
• Historical data (1987 -2006)
• 10-day composites

STC developed an agriculture
mask based on Landsat data.
• Two separate classes for
the Prairies (Cropland and
Grassland)
• One class for the rest of
Canada

Graphical User Interface:
• STC website has been modified to accommodate
the National CCAP application

Crop Conditions Compared to the Price of Wheat Futures
Large increase in wheat future prices over the growing season
Crop conditions
$
Information is Money !!!

• Mid-July to mid-August
• 2006
Spring Wheat Yield Model
• ‘Prairie farmers expect to harvest 18.6 million
tonnes of spring wheat’ Source: STC August 25, 2006 Field Crop
Reporting Series
• The CCAP spring wheat forecast at week 32 (July
31 – August 6) was 18.512 million tonnes, that is
within less than one-half of one percent of the
statistical estimate released by Statistics Canada on
August 25, 2006!!!

However,
• depending on the year, the CCAP spring
wheat yield forecasts can vary by as much
as ± 9% but usually is within 4 to 5 per cent
on a regional basis.
Therefore,
• although it has been discussed over the years, it
is imperative that the ag-met / soil moisture data
be integrated to improve the agricultural
monitoring capability.

Summary / Invitation
The Crop Condition Assessment Program:
• has been operational for over 20 years
•3 rd generation compositing software
•3 rd generation delivery mechanism for web
dissemination
• dynamic and versatile interactive application for:
• crop condition assessment (within and between
years)
• drought monitoring (aerial extent and severity)
• pasture insurance application (AFSC)

Opportunities:
• I firmly believe that the regional and national
CCAP provide excellent opportunities for the
extended integration of many soil moisture
monitoring applications for Canada and beyond !
• I look forward to the interaction and discussion
between everyone as we address the
opportunities for advancing soil moisture
monitoring.

Questions