Michel Deshayes
Scientific and Technical Officer - GEOGLAM Programme
GEO Secretariat, Geneve
Switzerland

Biography
Michel Deshayes graduated from Ecole polytechnique (1976), specialised in water, forest and rural engineering in ENGREF (1978) and then obtained a PhD in remote sensing applied to tropical vegetation mapping (Univ. Toulouse, 1981). He started his career in tropical forest ecology in India (Institut Fran?ais de Pondich?ry). Back in France, he joined the Remote sensing Laboratory of ENGREF, where he led research in use of EO data for forestry, in France, Europe, Russia and French Guyana. Then he began working on EO data for natural areas and geobased information for biodiversity. He has been involved in support to different public policies with the French Ministry of Environment, such as the French biodiversity information system (SINP), the development of methods for the new national map of habitats, or the French ecological network project, where he has been coordinator of its scientific and technical support. He has joined GEO (Group on Earth Observations) in October 2013 as coordinator of the GEOGLAM (Global Agricultural Monitoring) initiative.

Abstract
The GEOGLAM Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative

GEOGLAM, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative, was initially launched by the G20 Agriculture Ministers in June 2011. The initiative forms part of the G20 Action Plan on Food Price Volatility, which also includes the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS). The G20 Ministerial Declaration states that GEOGLAM “will strengthen global agricultural monitoring by improving the use of remote sensing tools and weather forecasting for crop production projections”. Beginning in September 2013, GEOGLAM started delivering monthly global crop outlooks to the AMIS Market Monitor publication, hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The GEOGLAM Initiative builds on GEO's Agricultural Community of Practice (over 300 members) and implementation actions in GEO’s Agricultures Societal Benefit Area. The initiative will contribute to generating reliable, accurate, timely and sustained crop monitoring information and yield forecasts, achieving it by:

1) Enhancing national agricultural reporting systems, including through a geo-spatial education curriculum established to enable training of participants worldwide,

2) Establishing a sustained international network of agricultural monitoring and research organizations and practitioners;

3)Harmonizing the operational global agricultural monitoring systems based on both satellite, in situ observations and agrometeorological information, including through improved coordination of satellite observations.