12 August, Thimphu: Hon’ble Sanam Lyonpo attended a virtual program on NASA DEVELOP organized by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a part of NASA’s broader Bhutan STEM engagement, a team of four Bhutanese scholars studying in the USA presented their NASA summer project to members from the US Department of States and the team from NASA Headquarter.
Speaking to the august gathering, Hon’ble Lyonpo expressed appreciation for being able to take part in the program. Lyonpo said that the groundbreaking advances NASA has been making in various scientific fields, including in food and agriculture, using its cutting-edge technology and advanced research capabilities has been truly commendable. Lyonpo mentioned that Bhutan stands to benefit from the program as it will help address environmental and policy concerns through practical application of NASA Earth science information and data. Lyonpo also commended the Bhutanese team for working on crop mask for rice to develop a data collection protocol using remote sensing data which will help the ministry in identifying rice growing areas to enhance the monitoring aspect of major land use in the country. Hon’ble Sanam Lyonpo mentioned that the thematic application areas of NASA DEVELOP such as agriculture, ecological forecasting, air quality, and wildfires are of immense priority to the Royal Government.
The Bhutanese student’s team undertook a project titled “Bhutan Ecological Agriculture II – Creating a Graphical User Interface for Rice Crop Analysis with Crop Mask and Data Collection Protocol using Remotely Sensed Data in Bhutan.” The Department of Agriculture of the ministry assisted the team in information gathering, views of technical requirements and the user feedback.
Bhutan and NASA DEVELOP initiated the collaboration in June 2020.
Reported by PPD & DOA
