“The new objective of AGRI CAMP Program, which is of great importance in ensuring the food security of our country, is in reliable hands, as it is led by an experienced person with a great contribution to the development and strengthening of the agricultural sector of Armenia”, said Lusine Tadevosyan, opening the workshop dedicated to the launch of the “Design, Pilot and Test Agricultural Data and Mapping System: AgroTwin”.

The workshop, which took place on May 31, 2024, was attended by representatives from the government, USAID, partner organizations of the Program, as well as old and new beneficiaries of the AGRI CAMP.

Referring to the details of AgroTwin, the head and coordinator of the new Objective, VardanUrutyan, noted that within the framework of the AgriTwin, it is planned to develop a digital twin technology for agriculture, utilizing the capabilities of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS), providing an innovative and comprehensive platform for effective in season crop management and optimization of farm operations.

«Several data dashboards will be developed within the AgroTwin platform allowing policy makers, farmers, investors and agricultural researchers to model, simulate, plan, analyze for efficient decision making, optimal policy making, for improved food security and making farming more sustainable», – Mr. Urutyan said.

Artur Grigoryan, the Director of ICARE Foundation, appreciated USAID for entrusting AGRI CAMP Program and mentioned that the achievments of the AgroTwin Objective will greatly endorse ICARE strategic goals.

RA Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan welcomed the launch of the component, emphasizing the necessity for widespread use of digital technologies. In his speech, Mr. Khojoyan specifically mentioned that the development of digital agriculture is one of the government priorities, and “even though it is still in its infancy”, the government must do its best to promote the development of the latest models and technologies for data collection and analysis, digitization and mapping, and integrate them in agriculture and other fields.
The chief expert of digital twins Bakrad Balabanyan presented the potential of digital twin technologies, thanks to which it will be possible to “transform agriculture”.

UAV operator and digital photogrammetry specialist Seryozha Karapetyan’s presentation was about receiving, processing and analyzing data from UAVs: «Using UAV and satellite technologies, data from the wheat fields of Shirak region are regularly collected, which is then being processed by GIS and RS experts», – he said. With the multiple datasets acquired, the team aims to build and test ML models for crop yield forecasting, disease detection, and site suitability assessment.

Within the framework of the AgroTwin Objective, the AGRI CAMP team collaborates with the staff of ANAU and Texas A&M University’s AgriLife Research and Extension Center. The participants of the workshop welcomed the presentation of Professor Juan Landivar, Director of the AgriLife Research and Extension Center, about the activities of the AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi and its role in the AgroTwin program. The presentation of Rudik Nazaryan, docent of ANAU, was dedicated to the monitoring of wheat growth and ground truthing. It became particularly clear from the speech that surveys have already been conducted among wheat-producing farmers and heads of administrative districts as well as various data have been collected: For example, the maximum, minimum and average monthly temperatures, annual precipitation of the last twenty years was aquired from “Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center” SNCO, results of physical and chemical composition of soil was obtained from the “Centre of the Agricultural Services:” SNCO; etc., which will then be integrated in the ArcGIS Online platform.

“The fact that we have been entrusted with this important task is a great honor and responsibility,” said Lusine Tadevosyan, CoP of the AGRI CAMP Program, summarizing the workshop. «The team has all the necessary professional, creative and personal capabilities to overcome this new milestone» she said.