Cooperation in UPRA

Cooperation Demands: Needs and opportunities to enhance UPRA's activities

Within the framework of the implementation of the institutional cooperation strategy, from the UPRA technical teams, the following needs and opportunities have been identified with the purpose of being leveraged by cooperating allies (national and international) to enhance the priority cooperation topics in the entity.

It should be noted that the additional support provided by cooperation will enhance the efforts currently made by the entity, so while a thematic mapping was carried out in UPRA, we are open to joint construction to identify new opportunities, in addition to those presented here, aimed at the efficient use of rural agricultural land.

- Agricultural Landscape

Novel tool for rural agricultural planning that contemplates the geographical, environmental, cultural, productive components, and the relationship between people and their environment around agricultural production. UPRA has developed instruments such as agricultural landscape maps and, currently, the catalog of agricultural landscapes for their management at different scales. In order to enhance this effort, we seek:

• Coordinate national and international support to implement the Cattle Landscape Map of Flooded Savanna of Paz de Ariporo (Casanare) and the Cacao Landscape Map of Family Farming of Piedemonte Acacireño (Meta).
• Exchange information to advance the development of the Agricultural Landscape Catalog tool and its management at the territorial level.
• Support the nomination of the "Cattle Landscape of Flooded Savanna of Paz de Ariporo" as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).
• Support the strengthening of the technical team's capacities.
  
• Expand our reach in the territory with logistical support, involving different landscapes.
  
• Develop new agricultural landscape maps.
  

- Crop Monitoring

Analysis of satellite images based on artificial intelligence and cloud processing that determine the location, extension, and changes of the productive area of crops of interest in the country. This way, facilitating decision-making for agricultural production and efficient land use. To expand the scope, we seek cooperation to:

• Have advanced technologies for processing and storing large volumes of data, including servers, networks, and specialized software that allow covering the wide diversity of crops that exist in the country.
• Enhance the team's capabilities in better and more advanced monitoring techniques, data analysis, and management of technological tools.
• Exchange experiences to improve workflows and artificial intelligence algorithms currently implemented.

- SIGRA

Information system for the management of agro-climatic, sanitary, market, and financial risks that affect agricultural production. With the support of cooperation, the initial part of the system was established; however, additional support is required to:

• Strengthen the exchange of information on agricultural production to enhance the analyses and decisions associated with agricultural risk and insurance.
• Deepen research on: growth models, yields, and production prediction in climatic scenarios, normal and extreme, for sanitary, climatic, financial, and market risks in agricultural products.
• Optimize the current SIGRA platform in its functionality, production tools, and improvement strategy.

- Traceability

System in the process of construction with the purpose of identifying the origin of agricultural products. This way, providing information for decision-making on efficient land use and compliance with the measures required for national agricultural production. With the support of cooperation, we seek:

• Learn about best practices and lessons learned from agricultural traceability systems already implemented or in process.
• Enhance the interoperability of information with existing national systems.
• Strengthen the technological capabilities of the human team so that the system uses tools such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, etc.
• Strengthen the team with the support of experts in legal, environmental, and geographic information systems related to traceability.

Prioritized topics to enhance mixed methodological approaches, innovation, data analytics, artificial intelligence, among others

- Agrologistics: Analysis strategy to diagnose and plan agricultural logistics services linked to the rural and productive development of the country. Cooperation would allow us to:

• Enhance data analysis.
• Support efforts to reach more territories in the country and respond to their physical, social, and economic particularities with inclusive, durable, and intersectoral planning.

- Distribution of Rural Lands: UPRA conducts studies on the distribution of rural property and the structure of land tenure in Colombia. It has robust methodologies for analysis and dissemination of results. Cooperation could enhance these efforts through:

• Development of complex analysis methodologies that allow for automated reports.
• Innovative methods of data collection and processing.

- Identification of idle, underutilized, and unproductive properties: In order to achieve better management of rural agricultural land, UPRA has developed monitoring tools to identify presumably idle, underutilized, and unproductive properties. To increase the reach of these tools, it is possible to enhance efforts through:

• Identifying, developing, and implementing methodologies for mixed and automated systems that allow for the detection of land use for agricultural purposes, and the parameters in their detection.
• Strengthening data analytics to cross variables such as those related to productive ordering, social land ordering, and territorial ordering.

- Zoning of productive aptitude for agricultural purposes: Evaluation to identify the aptitude of potential areas for agricultural production. UPRA has extensive experience in land evaluation for agricultural purposes; therefore, with cooperation, we could go further to:

• Incorporate automated statistical processing that allows for the analysis of complex variables.

For more information, please contact atencionalusuario@upra.gov.co with the subject line Institutional Cooperation.

- Land Use Planner Tool: European Forest Institute (EFI): ​​​
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Land Use Planner is a tool that was used to guide the guidelines of productive reconversion programs in rice areas in the departments of Tolima and Sucre. The application allowed identifying changes in land use, differences between the scenarios of change in area, yield, and rice rotation compared to other crops. The project was developed between 2019 and 2020.

- Guidelines for the Strengthening and Management of a Comprehensive Rural and Agricultural Information System in Colombia-World Bank:
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At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), the World Bank supported UPRA in preparing a roadmap to strengthen the management of agricultural information in the country. In this context, a characterization and evaluation of the main information tools of the sector under the competencies of MADR and DANE and the regulatory and institutional arrangements for the management of agricultural information in Colombia were developed, with the purpose of providing technical recommendations to strengthen the institutional capacities of UPRA as a managing entity of an integrated agricultural information system.

- Non-reimbursable Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), and the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA), for the development of Sigra - SEE AGREEMENT ​​​​
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In 2020, the non-reimbursable technical cooperation agreement was signed, which aims to strengthen the Colombian agricultural insurance market through the design and construction of the Information System for Agricultural Risk Management (Sigra) in its agroclimatic component. The project is executed with resources from the United Kingdom through the British Prosperity Fund and is administered by CAF. The project started in July 2020 and ends in August 2022.

- Study of International Markets for Beef and Dairy Products of Colombia: GIRA-World Bank-UPRA.
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This World Bank consultancy aimed to provide analytical inputs from international markets for the process of formulating the National Plan for the Productive Ordering of the dairy and meat chain.

- Agricultural Landscape Maps-Biocarbono Orinoquia Project, low-carbon sustainable landscapes: World Bank-MADR Agreement.
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This project aims to promote the management of Agricultural Landscape Maps in areas of the Colombian Orinoquia, as a strategy for social appropriation and sustainable agricultural production, with low-carbon development criteria, through the formulation of two agricultural landscape maps in the municipalities of Acacías (Meta) and Paz de Ariporo (Casanare). The project ends in December 2021.

- Data Infrastructure Project for the Orinoquia Region and Monitoring of Agricultural Uses for Planning and Efficient Use of Rural Land with Low-Carbon Production Criteria in the Colombian Orinoquia Region, within the framework of the Biocarbono Orinoquia Project, low-carbon sustainable landscapes: World Bank-MADR Agreement.
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Its objective is to consolidate data infrastructure, framed in the integrated information management strategy, harmonized with the Unified National System of Rural Agricultural Information (SNUIRA), and with an emphasis on monitoring agricultural uses at a scale of 1:100,000 for the Colombian Orinoquia region, as a contribution to the planning and efficient use of rural land with low-carbon production criteria.

- Determination of Commercial Land Prices in the Orinoquia, within the framework of the Biocarbono Orinoquia Project, low-carbon sustainable landscapes: World Bank-MADR Agreement.
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Its objective is to develop the commercial land price map at a scale of 1:100,000 for the departments of Arauca, Casanare, and Vichada.

- Formulation of the Strategy for the Regularization of Rural Land Property in the Orinoquia, within the framework of the Biocarbono Orinoquia Project, low-carbon sustainable landscapes: World Bank-MADR Agreement.
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Its purpose is to develop a strategy to harmonize inter-institutional actions (MADR, ANT, IGAC, SNR, UPRA, and Jurisdictional Branch) and the territorial management of the regularization of rural land property, according to their competencies focused on the Colombian Orinoquia.

- Analysis of Land Distribution in the Orinoquia
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Its purpose is to conduct the analysis of rural land distribution in Colombia for the 2019 period with a specialized chapter on the Orinoquia.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the Rural Land Planning, Land Adaptation, and Agricultural Uses Unit (UPRA).
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In October 2022, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed, which aims to support the transfer of knowledge for the application of the methodologies developed by UPRA within the framework of territorial management. UN Women, for its part, will share experiences that can contribute to strengthening women's empowerment and gender equality.

Within this framework, work sessions were held with Red Adelco (UN Women operator) with the aim of socializing UPRA's prioritization methodologies for productive alternatives and financial evaluation and accompanying the preparation and review of these studies in two PDET regions of Colombia.

- Skillshares in Monitoring Agricultural Activities with the British Prosperity Fund - Camnexus
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This skillshare began in May 2022 with the objective of monitoring agricultural activities in the Páramo de Guerrero. It contributed to broadening the spectrum of the different data sources and mechanisms that exist to identify the processes of crop recognition for agricultural uses in the territory and strengthen UPRA's technical skills. This initiative ended in October 2022 with the identification of areas, priority zones, and analysis of results in the R Studio tool.

- Data Infrastructure Project for the Orinoquia Region and Monitoring of Agricultural Uses for Planning and Efficient Use of Rural Land with Low-Carbon Production Criteria in the Colombian Orinoquia Region, within the Framework of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Biocarbono Orinoquia Project, Low-Carbon Sustainable Landscapes: World Bank-MADR Agreement
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The project presented advances in the development of algorithms with machine learning on cloud computing platforms for monitoring prioritized chains: rice, palm, cocoa, cashew, forestry, and pastures for livestock. More than 1,300 Radar and Optical satellite images were analyzed for monitoring.

UPRA has developed capacities, knowledge, and tools that have allowed it to generate information for informed decision-making, aimed at rural development and the agricultural sector. From UPRA, we can share our knowledge on topics such as:

- Information Management – ICT Office: An office out of the ordinary that allows complex data to be converted into open and easily accessible information using quality, reliable, and timely processes.

- Distribution of Rural Lands: Robust methodologies to exchange data between national and international entities and generate information.

- Crop Monitoring: UPRA has implemented an efficient, systematic, and unique procedure for satellite crop monitoring that takes into account the geographical and atmospheric conditions of the country. Innovative development in satellite image interpretation, creation of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning techniques can serve as a model for countries and regions with complex particularities.

- Agricultural Landscape: Recognition of landscapes and development of tools to manage the landscape, such as landscape maps and the catalog of agricultural landscapes, allowing territorial planning with a holistic approach, which integrates economic, environmental, cultural, social, and biophysical components. This approach also strengthens local governance over rural planning and ordering.

- Zoning of Productive Aptitude for Agricultural Purposes: Through land evaluation with an integral physical, socio-ecosystem, and socioeconomic approach, and a multi-criteria spatial analysis, potential areas are identified where the best conditions for specific uses agricultural, livestock, forestry, aquaculture, or fishing of rural land are presented, at the national level and in the different regions of our territory. As of 2024, there are more than 70 zoned productive systems nationwide; and more than 300, territorially.

For more information, please contact atencionalusuario@upra.gov.co with the subject line Institutional Cooperation.