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- The presence of dense cloud cover during crop growing 
season, that could obstruct the earth surface 
observation from space. 
Despite the serious problems that these countries are 
facing, the following prospects could be observed: 
- The importance of regional cooperation has been 
recognized. 
- The awareness of certain problems has been 
strengthened. 
- The pursue of self-reliance in learning to utilize the 
available resources is increasing. 
6 CONCLUSIONS 
The experiences, gained in the last two decades, have 
shown that the derivation of information from remote 
sensing data, both airborne and spaceborne in combination 
with other sorts of data, in ecological monitoring and land 
resource management of large regions in developing 
countries, is very revealing. Remote sensing data could 
contribute effectively to the compilation of land use maps, 
which is the first cornerstone for a meaningful crop 
forecasting and ecological monitoring programme. 
However, the effectiveness of such programmes could be 
enormously raised if the awareness and the self-reliance of 
these countries are timely encouraged and genuinely 
supported both in research and application. 
Fig 4. Synoptic view of METEOSAT image showing the 
cloud cover in tropical Africa (Source: Meteorological 
Institute, FU Berlin). 
in which remote sensing is needed. However, the upgrading 
of the two facilities, both in equipment and manpower is an 
essential prerequisite. 
4.3 National 
The scope of the available technology in regard to remote 
sensing for agriculture and ecological monitoring varies 
from one country to another. In Kenya, for example, crop 
forecasting is carried out by two authorities, the Ministry 
of Agriculture and Livestock using conventional 
agrostatistical data, and the Kenya Rangeland Ecological 
Monitoring Unit applying remote sensing technology. The 
technical infrastructure is very favourable in Kenya. In 
Somalia, the establishment of a food security programme, 
in which the agricultural data is systematically collected 
and evaluated, started just in 1979/80 with the technical 
assistance of the Federal Republic of Germany. Agro 
statistical sampling correlated with agrometeorological 
data is used. Though there is an urgent wish to accelerate 
crop forecasting by integrating remote sensing technology, 
it will take some time before this could be realized. 
5 PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS 
Some of the common problems that these concerned group 
of countries share are characterized by: 
- The lack of sufficient information on the human and 
natural resources in the country, as a result of the 
weakness of the institutions that collect information 
or even their none existance. 
- The lack of adequate financial resources, skilled 
personnel, and appropriate facilities to permit remote 
sensing applications effectively. 
- The lack of receiving stations in the region that would 
ensure the acquisition of spaceborne data that these 
countries need. 
- The lack of a genuine planning and implementation 
policy towards the application of remote sensing 
technology. 
- The extreme variations in the climatic conditions, and 
the fragility of the ecosystems as a whole. 
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