Chinese satellite crop-watching platform used by dozens of countries wins FAO award
The Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences received the FAO Achievement Award in Rome for CropWatch, a cloud service that tracks crop conditions with satellite data. FAO says 32 countries have adopted it; the Academy puts the figure at more than 40 countries and regions.
Knowing early that a wheat or rice harvest is in trouble can change a government’s decisions on imports or support for farmers. That is what CropWatch offers: a platform that analyses satellite images to follow the state of crops around the world. On 16 October in Rome, FAO gave it one of its two 2026 Achievement Awards.
The award went to the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researcher Wu Bingfang, who leads the team behind the platform, received it from FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.
From satellite to policy
According to FAO, the cloud version of CropWatch puts satellite crop monitoring within reach of countries everywhere. It has been adopted by 32 countries and is built into Hand-in-Hand, FAO’s own geospatial platform. Its bulletin reaches users in 170 countries.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences gives slightly higher figures: more than 40 countries and regions use it, and its bulletin has served users in 173. Both sources agree on the essentials: it is an open service that lets countries without large technical resources monitor their harvests with scientific data. The Academy says the award recognises more than three decades of the team’s work.
What comes next
“This is not the end, but a milestone on a new journey ahead,” Wu Bingfang told Xinhua after receiving the award. The team plans to improve the platform, make it easier to use and help more countries build their own crop monitoring capacity.
Image courtesy of the FAO Photo Library.
